Leão Lopes

Adilson Andrade

Aldir Lopes

Anderson Fortes

Anderson Ramos

In Cape Verde, where the majority of the population is young, children use olive oil cans, bits of sandals, leftover tires and pieces of cardboard to build their own toys.  The absence of a consumer society and the challenges posed by insularity have led them to invent their own recreational independence with almost nothing.

In the remote village of El Echo that exists outside of time, the children care for the sheep and their elders. While the frost and drought punish the land, they learn to understand death, illness and love with each act, word and silence of their parents. A story about the echo of what clings to the soul, about the certainty of shelter provided by those around us, about rebellion and vertigo in the face of life. About growing up.

It takes time to grow up. And sometimes you even wonder if it’s really worth it… Then the children move slowly, at their own pace, the time to tame the world that awaits them. On the way, they ask questions and invent answers using their overflowing imagination.

Children play amidst cycles of thunder and violence.

An unnamed passer-by is forced to trace a circular route inside an abandoned tram station, facing loss and time. The broken walls act as a channel, transmitting fragmentary, blurred and analogical memories. 

Pame returns to the ballet academy where she danced when she was three. Reflecting on her own childhood, she looks for answers within the girls that dance there now. Ultimately, she tries to answer the question: Why did I quit ballet?