FIKE 2009 - 8^th Évora International Short Film Festival

MULLERES DA RAIA (Women From The Border)

A journey to the borders of the north of Portugal and Galicia leads us to our most recent past, where smuggling and illegal emigration were a usual practice in these lands, profiting the proximity of the neighbor country. In terms of repression, with the two countries living dictatorial regimes, a large number of Portuguese people emigrated to France illegally crossing the two borders. The women stayed to cultivate the fields and bring up their children. Local smuggling was another way to escape poverty, so an army of women crossed the border everyday to buy and sell the needed products, due to the price difference. This trade exchange between the border people of the Minho built great friendship bounds and generated a shared history. The “raia”, as the border is popularly known, keeps a story of daily fight for survival and its women are witnesses.