The film is 'The Savannah and the Mountain', by Paulo Carneiro, which will premiere on Saturday at the Directors' Fortnight, a parallel event at the Cannes Film Festival, with the participation of the director and some of the inhabitants of Covas do Barroso. The feature film is presented as a fiction, about a community that decides to unite to expel a foreign company that wants to build a lithium mining operation in their village. In a staging of a western, the population mobilizes itself armed with the weapons at their disposal -- tractors, hoes, ox carts, protest songs -- against an invisible and distant enemy: the foreign company and the government that authorized the mining project. This "social western" is a staging of a real struggle by local and environmentalist associations from Covas do Barroso and Boticas, against a project by the British company Savannah Resources, to open-cast mine lithium in an area that is classified as World Agricultural Heritage. In recent years, there have been demonstrations, marches, and protest camps against the mine that the opponents consider harmful to the region. Paulo Carneiro, who lives in Lisbon, but is familiar with that territory, where he has already shot the biographical documentary 'Bostofrio, où le ciel rejoint la terre' (2018), decided one day to pick up the camera and join that fight. In an interview with the Lusa agency, Paulo Carneiro explains that he started by making "a kind of documentary", but ended up involving the inhabitants in writing a fiction so that they could achieve what they have not yet managed to do in reality, preventing the mining project. "There is a moment when I say 'Let's make a film, all together; I'll be here, it won't be easy, but do you want this to happen?' And they accept. From this moment on, there is no turning back: When you enter the fight, you don't leave the fight. And we, with cinema, use cinema as a weapon in that fight. The truth is that no one ever gave up and the film exists", said Paulo Carneiro. The film includes some of the people who have opposed the Savannah Resources project, such as the president of the Local Community of the Baldios of Covas do Barroso, Aida Fernandes, Maria Loureiro, and Carlos Libo, who performs protest songs. Paulo Carneiro does not know the impact of the film when it premieres at Cannes, even though it is one of the most important festivals in the world. "It is a bit hard to believe that cinema can change anything, but at least it can give visibility and make people talk about what is happening, give a voice to what is happening on the ground right now", he said. 'The Savannah and the Mountain' was made by four people, over several months between 2020 and 2023, without funding from the Institute of Cinema and Audiovisual (ICA), but with support from the Municipal Council of Boticas and the Cinema and Audiovisual Agency of Uruguay, the film's co-producing country. "There were only four of us and we had to work very fast, choosing the place for the camera. Cinema is that, finding the place to put the camera. Suddenly, we have all the elements, we think fast, we stage it and we don't make them [the inhabitants] waste too much time", recalled Paulo Carneiro. Regarding the production of the film, about the fact that he did not get funding from the ICA, which he applied for several times, Paulo Carneiro asks for reflection on Portuguese cinema. "The film is there, it will exist, it will be distributed and I hope that it will make people reflect on what cinema is. What scares me a little is to look and realize that cinema is increasingly becoming audiovisual. There is a specific section [in ICA's support] for that. There is nothing wrong with making audiovisuals. But cinema is one thing and audiovisual is another", he said. 'The Savannah and the Mountain' will premiere in Cannes, where contacts will be made for international distribution, while its exhibition in Portugal is also being planned, with a first presentation in Covas do Barroso, for the local population, with no date yet announced. The Directors' Fortnight, which will take place from May 15 to 25, is an independent non-competitive program, which runs parallel to the Cannes Film Festival and is organized by the Society of Film and Television Directors. In addition to 'The Savannah and the Mountain', the program also includes the short film 'When the Earth Flees', by Frederico Lobo, also shot in Trás-os-Montes, and the short film 'The Garden in Motion', by director and visual artist Inês Lima. In a co-production with Portugal, the film 'Something Old, Something New, Something Borrowed', by Argentine director Hermán Rosselli, co-produced by Oublaum Filmes, by Ico Costa, will also be presented. In the Critics' Week, another parallel section of the festival, there is the film 'My Sensations Are All I Have to Offer', by Isadora Neves Marques. At the Cannes Film Festival, which begins on Tuesday, in the official competition, is the feature film 'Grand Tour', by Miguel Gomes, and the short film 'Bad for a Moment', by Daniel Soares. Also Read: Actress Meryl Streep receives Palme d'honneur at the Cannes Film Festival (Portuguese version)