The possibility of filming a movie in Africa, in Guinea Bissau, was a secure adventure as you cannot predict what will happen in Africa at all. It was also an uncertain adventure because we were not sure that we would come back with enough images to edit a full length film. We knew the matter but what we had investigated in Spain was not enough. Therefore the documentation process there was eventually the filming of the movie itself.
To film in one of the poorest countries in the world -without a sufficient electricity source nor running water- could be a problem at some point. Even the simplest task of charging a battery, for example, could be problematic, almost impossible.
Despite the initial problems we had, we firmly believed in the story we wanted to tell. The troubles that Guinean kids found when they need to be evacuated in Europe in order to save their lives once it is impossible to do there. We focus on few particular cases, explaining the difficulties, usually bureaucratic staff they have. We wanted to get closer to the kids and their families while they are waiting to know either they save their lives or they don’t. We also wanted to meet the people who help the kids and families in order to fulfill the whole process. Suddenly we happened to have a variety of characters we would have never imagined. Every time they show up, these characters, they give a new dimension to the story.
And last but not least, the political instability in Guinea affects directly and indirectly to the population. One day, on March 3rd, the President of the Republic and the Chief of Staff are killed. The country is stopped one full day. It happens the same with the funerals. A simple bureaucratic step can turn into impossible an emergency process and that can cost the life of any kid who is waiting an evacuation.
Anyway, after the killings life keeps going, elections are called, but the fragility of political institutions does not improve and its population still suffers the consequences. Because of our main characters’ job many lives which should not be on danger are being saved.
We got to film up to 90 hours of images. A new adventure started then, the edition. Many months later we had this 90 minutes length film. Every single thing that happened to us during the couple of months we were filming it is not in the movie, but that what was required to tell this story the best way possible.
Los dioses de verdad tienen huesos 