CPH:DOX 2025 - Fire of Wind / Fogo do Vento

It's harvest time in the Alentejo in southern Portugal. The sun is baking and the wind carries nothing but scorching heat. The young woman Soraia cuts her hand with the scissors she uses to cut grapes. The blood drips. It mixes with the wine. And suddenly a raging black bull appears, forcing the sweating peasants to flee high into the nearby oak trees. 

As they wait for the bull to disappear, they share bread and wine and memories and dreams with each other in long monologues. And as the sunny day slowly turns into the dark night, time slowly dissolves. Old newspapers, radio broadcasts and characters from the past enter the movie and tell the story of a landscape and a country still haunted by the Salazar dictatorship.

'Fire of Wind' is a modern myth in broad daylight, composed of carefully chosen angles and with respect for the workers who are usually outside the frame. An impressive debut film that draws on filmmakers like Straub-Huillet and Pedro Costa.