Lindo

Cast & Crew:

Director’s statement

In the summer of 2016, when I finally managed to save the money needed to go to Príncipe for the first time, I understood that one of the great transformations on the island was in the relationship of its inhabitants with natural resources, due to the importance the island was assuming in a global context of nature conservation.
Alongside its classification by UNESCO as a World Biosphere Reserve, regional legislative decrees prohibited the capture of various species, and foreign biologists and nature conservation programs multiplied there, driven not only by Mark Shuttleworth’s team but also by other environmental protection agencies.
Lindo (Manuel da Graça’s nickname) followed this trend. For years he hunted sea turtles as a means of subsistence, until a biologist showed him that, in the long term, that natural resource would be more valuable to the island if it were preserved. From then on, he began working on conservation programs, funded by external bodies.
He believes in the importance of what he does for the future, but in the present he earns less than when he hunted turtles. It was through Lindo’s journey that I immersed myself in the life of the island and encountered the paradoxes that shape the relationship between humankind and nature.
After the summer of 2016, I returned to the island five more times. On my last trip, in 2022, I already had the certainty and proof that not all the inhabitants of Príncipe reacted in the same way to the changing times; not all aligned themselves with the new order.

Lindo thus begins as a biographical film, transforming into a tool for reflection on the future challenges facing the island. Being a foreigner and Portuguese, I carried throughout this time the awareness of an external perspective, inevitably marked by the symbolic weight of an unresolved colonial legacy. This recognition imposed itself in an attempt not to project romantic exoticism or a judgmental gaze onto the island.
I sought to film respecting the rhythm of the island and the complexity of the lives that inhabit it, resisting the temptation to explain. I also wanted to be faithful to the natural beauty of Príncipe and highlight the biodiversity that is at the origin of the conflict, allowing the film to become, in itself, an ode to nature.
Primarily observational, contemplative, and immersive, Lindo is thus constructed in studied shots that accentuate how natural elements intersect with the daily lives of humans on the island. It’s a journey to a world within our own.
And despite telling a local story, I hope it will build bridges for a global discussion: to what extent, and in what way, can or should we condition human life to protect a particular species or nature as a whole?

Screenings:

Can you find it?, 31 July 2026, 21:00 (Q&A with Margarida Gramaxo)

CLUE: Like Príncipe, the venue hosts numerous works of art, therefore being gifted with Monumental beauty.

Why was it selected:

The marvellous natural setting of the Príncipe Island would be enough reason to watch this film, but the way Margarida Gramaxo tells Lindo’s story and invites us to reflect on our relationship with nature and other beings left us no doubts in selecting this docufiction as our opening film in 2026.