The Ashes Remain Warm

“Every morning when I go out of the door, he is the first one I see.
He is the first to tell me good morning.”
“He is a father. Although he is destroying us, he does not kill us.”

The villages of ‘Chã das Caldeiras’ lie inside the caldera of the ‘Pico do Fogo’ volcano in Cabo Verde.
After losing everything they own on the last eruption, its inhabitants are forced to reconstruct their lives.

A subjective visual tale on real loss, a symbiotic relationship and the possibility of the eternal return.

  • Mónica Martins Nunes
    Director
  • Mónica Martins Nunes
    Producer
  • Christoph Manz
    Producer
  • Maria "Pikinita" Monteiro
    Key Cast
    "herself"
  • José "Zé Doce" Lopes dos Santos
    Key Cast
    "himself"
  • Fábio Junior Gonçalves Dias
    Key Cast
    "himself"
  • Carlos Alberto "Cecílio" Montrond
    Key Cast
    "himself"
  • Filipa Cordeiro
    Translation
  • Caio Soares
    Color Correction
  • Izandro Fernandes Montrond
    Music
  • Mónica Martins Nunes
    Editor
  • Mónica Martins Nunes
    Camera
  • Ana Baliza
    Poster
  • Project Title (Original Language):
    Na cinza fica calor
  • Project Type:
    Documentary, Experimental, Short
  • Runtime:
    20 minutes 52 seconds
  • Completion Date:
    May 9, 2017
  • Production Budget:
    0 EUR
  • Country of Origin:
    Portugal
  • Country of Filming:
    Cape Verde
  • Aspect Ratio:
    16:9
  • Film Color:
    Color
  • First-time Filmmaker:
    Yes
  • Student Project:
    Yes
  • IndieLisboa International Film Festival
    Lisbon
    Portugal
    National Competition Selection
  • DOK Leipzig
    Leipzig
    Germany
    *Winner* Golden Dove - International Competition Short Documentary
  • Rencontres Internationales Paris/Berlin - Cité Internationale des Arts
    Paris
    France
  • Trento Film Festival
    Trento
    Italy
    Sestogrado
  • Rencontres Internationales Paris/Berlin - Haus der Kulturen der Welt
    Berlin
    Germany
  • Pelicam International Film Festival
    Tulcea
    Romania
    *Winner* Best Pelicam Short
  • 澳門國際紀錄片電影節 moidf ( Macao international Documentary Film Festival)
    Macao
    China
    Portuguese Section
  • Festival della Lessinia
    Bosco Chiesanuova
    Italy
    Official Competition
  • Curt´Arruda
    Arruda dos Vinhos
    Portugal
    Official Competition
  • PLATEAU - Festival Internacional de Cinema da Praia
    Praia
    Cape Verde
    Official Competition
  • KUGOMA
    Maputo
    Mozambique
    August 30, 2019
Director Biography - Mónica Martins Nunes

Mónica Martins Nunes - born in Lisbon, 1990 - currently lives and works between Berlin and different Portuguese localities.
She began her artistic practice as a sculptor working with ceramics and only later entered the realm of film.
Navigating through different cinematic registers freely, she entwines poetry and reality in deceivingly simple films that yearn to unearth a wider understanding of both.
In her films and in her sculptures, she looks for materials, places, people and traditions in the shadow of a fast and seemingly all-encompassing society. While experimenting with the non-melodic musicality of moving image, her montage searches for a rhythm interweaving linearity with the cyclic nature of time.
Her first film THE ASHES REMAIN WARM (Na cinza fica calor) won the Golden Dove in the International Competition Short Documentary at DOK Leipzig 2018 after premiering at IndieLisboa. Her second film SORTES - a film dedicated to her grandfather - premiered at Visions du Reél and has won the "German Short Film Award" for "Best Mid Length Film". Both were shot with time and attentiveness in a one woman team.

Add Director Biography