MIGRANT WOMEN
"Lucy In The Sky With Diamonds"

The director's introduction:

Identity or identities?I am part of the first generation of family members who were born in Portugal. Thanks to my parents, both my sister and myself grew up aware of our roots and of the fact that we were culturally crossbred, as Pepetela one day wrote: "we are not yes or no, we are maybe".

Early on, I learned how to carry myself before an audience of curious people as a true honorary ambassador of my parents' original culture.

However, to survive society's latent aggressiveness and even its rejection to everything that escapes the rules, is not an easy task. Long ago I became aware that being accepted or not in one's difference means conquering others, by sharing knowledge, since it is the unknown that scares Man.

From Mouraria to Madragoa, from Graça to Príncipe Real, from Alfama to Socorro, from Lapa to Chelas, there are many sounds, rhythms, smells and flavours that the contemporary Lisbon offers, through the people that live in it, that pass through it.
This city where Fado was born became Lisbon of Morna, Moor Lisbon, Lisbon of Samba, Lisbon of Curry, Lisbon of Flamenco, Lisbon of Xau Mín and in so many others, since Lisbon, in its essence, is also Gipsy.

Here in Lisbon, I am going to share with you the story of five immigrant women who share a common geographical destination: Portugal.
Although coming from different family, social, economical and political contexts, they have the same contingency of arriving here.

The central issue in this research is to discover how much each of these women today identifies, in any way, with the cultural aspects of this society.

Which dreams did these women have when they left their countries?
What was their first impression when they got here?
Did they feel part of here?
How did it happen?
Was there an assimilation of customs and habits?
Did they share in any way their cultural heritage with the community where they settled?
How do they see themselves today?
What is their identity today?
Do they dream to return to their own country?

I do not wish to present a product that tires to be a typified portrait of genres and immigrational movements. I am not interested in plural speeches, common stories. I do not intent to "mash everything together". I care about listening to each story told in the first person, by its main character, paying attention to its details, its life. What fascinates me most is exactly what distinguishes each of these women, the depth of their reasons, the course of their lives, what there is extraordinary in them. And also understand what Portugal brought to their uniqueness, what this country, its culture, its customs, its own history, added or took from these women, these five women.

The Women
Dona Augusta
A Norwegian business woman who fell in love with Portugal through its most charismatic music form: Fado. Nowadays you can find her singing fado at Baiuca Restaurant, right in the heart of the mother neighborhood of fado: Alfama.

Francisca Van Dunen
An Angolan woman who fought and won. Now she is the District Attorney of Lisbon. In Portugal, she had the opportunity to educate herself, envision a career, start it, evolving and reaching one of the top positions inside a state and constitutional organization. She is someone who was forced to leave her place of origin to establish herself in a new and different far away country, and who, through time, not only adapts to that place, but starts having a voice, an expression, a decision; she also starts being one of the top people in the environment that took her in.

Haula Haider
She was born in Mozambique. Her parents, born Indian, migrated to that country. When the revolution of April happened in Portugal, they came here and stayed. She's a physician. Her husband is the spiritual leader of the Muslim community in Portugal.

Renee Gognon
A Canadian lady that came to Portugal for love. A non typical case in what concerns the need to migrate. A story that seems to belong in a fantasy, a dream, a novel. She's a painter and her art has been developed in Portugal. With her, I am interested in understanding the measure of that love that made her leave for a country on the other side of the world, change continents, and adopt a culture totally different from hers.

Rosangela
A Brazilian lady who is deprived of her freedom.
This woman's reality is that she will be confined to a space, where supposedly she will come to assimilate social rules, so that when she leaves prison she can socially get on track instead of repeating criminal actions.

a production of  Bollywood Pictures
executive producer Fernando Centeio
producer Rute Fernandes

director Myriam Xâfredo dos Reis
assistant director Hugo Amaro