U.S. Premiere
When the community of Covas do Barroso, in northern Portugal, discovers that the British company Savannah Resources plans to build the largest open-pit lithium mine in Europe just a few meters from their homes, they decide to organize and expel them from their lands. Director Paulo Carneiro worked with the people to create a piece of fiction around their real lives, using their experiences for a kind of re-enactment, reinvention or even reinterpretation of events. Documenting their resistance as a tool for intervention, this collaborative process directly involved the citizens who would be impacted by the mine. For Carnival 2022, they chose a Wild West theme and called it, “The Lithium Mafia.” Carneiro used this theme to frame the film, casting the villagers as actors and incorporating footage from that protest into the final film.
Among the locals cast was Carlos Libo, who was initially just meant to act in the opening and closing scenes. But near the end of the editing stages, an obvious fix to the struggles they were having with the music presented itself: use Libo's intervention songs. These songs pack a punch that hammers home the personal protest of a people fighting for their way of life.
