Monte Clérigo

more information

Director’s statement

Empathy for others (or lack thereof) is one of the indelible marks of human beings. Several factors and contexts determine the way in which man relates to beings of his own species. Ignorance and ethnic-cultural difference are risk factors for the peaceful coexistence of the human species, and violence often appears as a reflection of these factors. Monte Clérigo, bringing focus and perspective on the minority, aims to question the territorial privileges that exist in certain communities and that overlap with human rights. The fact that my own life has a history of a nomadic nature, of constant adaptations to new contexts and different communities – in 35 years I have lived in more than 20 homes, among 9 cities in 6 different countries – puts me on the side mostly with the perspective of those who arrive, who present themselves and who feel the need to connect. Xenophobia, due to fear of the other and the unknown, is a curiously more present and more popular topic in the daily lives of the Portuguese today (2023) than when I was a teenager. The growing populist wave that has been plaguing the world imposes the need to recover values of communion, understanding, acceptance before the other and before the unknown. Faced with the apparent cloud of regression that has plagued us, and as an aspiring filmmaker, I feel obliged to portray the collision of different communities in order to transmit the values that have guided the ambivalence of my journey as a citizen of the world. Monte Clérigo therefore starts from an idyllic setting, enchanted by the landscape and the raw nature that comprises it, to expose the tragedy that can arise from the collision of classes and different ethnic groups if we are led by indifference.