Deuses de pedra

Ivan Castiñeiras returns to his childhood home to delve into the legends and stories of the surrounding area. Filmed over 15 years, Deuses de pedra draws careful lines between past and present, portraying a beautiful land and the beautiful souls of those who live there.

What is a border? Besides the many uses and misuses of this word in our daily lives, a border is made by the people that inhabit it. This simple principle is the base of Iván Castiñeiras’ masterful debut: Deuses de pedra. Narrated as an odyssey moving back and forth in time, the film encounters the population living around the most ancient border in Europe: the one dividing Spain and Portugal. From smugglers to kings, from children to shepherds, this stunningly beautiful land becomes the theatre for history repeating itself. Addressing some of the crucial issues that interest many peripheral spaces in Europe, mining and emigration, Deuses de pedra shows the effects of far away political decisions on the daily life of common people.

Castiñeiras’ film is a true gem, an ode to a people absent from mainstream culture, that tells us stories of resilience and love, of political battles and exile, in a never ending cycle of life in which the struggles change shape but remain identical in their substance. Playful, poetic and heartwarming, shot in a sublime 16mm, Deuses de pedra transcends ethnography and uses cinema to search, and find, the soul of the people it portrays.

– Rebecca De Pas

Trailer

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