Ana Lua Caiano

The video places Ana Lua Caiano in a theatrical, almost domestic set carved out of a Lisbon school building. Floors are piled high with three tonnes of soil; scattered across that earth are the everyday — keyboards doubled as piano keys, a small pony, and eventually a herd of cows that slowly occupy the frame.

Joana Caiano directs with a steady compositional eye, Carolina Lobo Nunes on cinematography capturing the tactile quality of the soil and the animals’ unhurried presence. A memorable slow zoom-out reveals the full herd while Ana plays on computer keyboards; that reveal is measured, the camera movement keeping the human scale small against the herd’s quiet takeover. Edmond Pitarma’s steadicam work and Joana Caiano’s own editing shape the film’s rhythm.

The shoot was logistically ambitious: 36 cast and crew, a live pony and cows, and the practical chores of hauling soil indoors and avoiding occasional cow manure. Bernardo Grécio’s art direction builds the set’s oddball humour; Catarina Veneratti produced. Katie Linard’s colour correction and Luís Afonso’s VFX tidy the film’s final textures.

Conceptually the piece leans on a lyric line — “There are more men buried in work than in graves” — letting image and animal behaviour carry a universal, language-free reading. The Berlin Music Video Awards has selected this as this week’s Music Video of the Week.