Deuses de Pedra

What is a border? Besides the many uses and misuses of this word in our daily lives, a border is made by the people that inhabit it. This simple principle is the base of Iván Castiñeiras' masterful debut: Gods of Stone. Narrated as an odyssey moving back and forth in time, the film encounters the population living around the most ancient border in Europe: the one dividing Spain and Portugal. From smugglers to kings, from children to shepherds, this stunningly beautiful land becomes the theatre for history repeating itself. Addressing some of the crucial issues that interest many peripheral spaces in Europe, mining, and emigration, Gods of Stone shows the effects of far away political decisions on the daily life of common people. Castiñeiras' film is a true gem, an ode to a people absent from mainstream culture, that tells us stories of resilience and love, of political battles and exile, in a never ending cycle of life in which the struggles change shape but remain identical in their substance. Playful, poetic and heartwarming, shot in a sublime 16mm, Gods of Stone transcends ethnography and uses cinema to search, and find, the soul of the people it portrays.

Deuses de Pedra is a 2026 history documentary movie directed by Iván Castiñeiras, starring Cinda Freitas, Mariana Freitas Tavares, Jaime Freitas Tavares. It holds an IMDb rating of 7.5/10 from 27 votes and runs 1h 25m.