14-21

In May 2014, with the announcement of the European troika’s departure from Portugal, Duarte Amaral Netto decided to cross the country from North to South, through the centre. He was restless with the idea of getting to know the country and how impossible that idea seemed. The result of this journey is a personal portrait of the country, which is as much analytical, critical, or poetic. From these painful years of the country’s recent history, and despite the economic and social crisis was only partially overcome, a time of investment into the potential of tourism followed. The optimism these bets in the areas of tourism and hospitality generated in the economy, amplified a problem that was already a weakening the stability and development of the country: housing. A housing crisis added to an ailing social fabric, largely dependent on the service sector. The Covid-19 world pandemic would make all the weaknesses of the Portuguese socio-economic structure even more visible. The pandemic provides a backdrop to Duarte Amaral Netto’s first endeavour into cinema. The new film produced for this exhibition questions the fluctuation mechanisms of the economic, social, housing and political dimensions that condition our lives in 2021.