Sousa Martins

At Uz, an isolated hamlet in the northern mountains of Portugal, four generations live together in a group of around fifty people. When life is rough, solidarity is of the highest order. Everything else is left in God’s hands. They could have emigrated, like so many others, but chose to stay and keep their ancestral way of life, away from the racket of modernity.

The forced repatriation of Azorean migrants from the US has resulted in tragic consequences for the deportees and their families. Leaving the islands at a young age, and raised in the US, they remember little of the Azores upon their return. Separated from loved ones and barely speaking Portuguese, their struggle leaves them disconsolate. Lost in faraway memories, the deportees come to abide in an open sky prison of abandoned hopes.

The last inhabitants of Azinhaga dos Besouros, in the outskirts of Lisbon, don’t have any legal right to rehousing. They live their district’s demolition, where it will be built a rapid access road in the future.

This is Justine Lemahieu’s encounter over several years with Lila and João, the two artists and activists from Fado Bicha band, whose songs embody and give voice to LGBTQIA+ stories and struggles. Backstage, words and glances intersect, questioning our relationship with appearances, gender norms, language, and sexuality.