Woman during the pig slaughter

Filming of the documentary Arribes: Everything Else is Noise

Arribes: Everything Else is Noise portrays the bittersweet lives of the inhabitants of this isolated region of NW Spain, where sacrifice and hard work began at an early age, but where a simpler, basic life-style made room for a sense of community and happiness.

As people reflect on never owning a car or tractor, walking from village to village to go to communal dances, tending goats and sheep by themselves from pre-adolescence, killing the animals that they had fondly raised, and remembering the region when it was a green paradise, a picture of a eco-system emerges where everything is used, recycled, and interconnected. Producing 80-90% of their own food, there has always been a strong, direct relationship between food, agriculture, and the people who tend the land, making it a concrete example of an healthy, sustainable environment with lessons that can be applied elsewhere. The documentary raises questions about our own way of living and if changes in lifestyles, priorities and population structures are essential for a more sustainable future.

With the depopulation of the countryside, the erosion of this way of life is contrasted with the views of a younger generation who moved there from Madrid, Barcelona and the UK, attracted by what Arribes had to offer.

The sometimes funny, sometimes sad anecdotes are accompanied by details of everyday countryside life depicted with a sense of poetry and care, bringing into focus values often forgotten in a contemporary society with other priorities.