"Os Serrenhos do Caldeirão - exercícios em antropologia ficcional" ("The Hill People of Caldeirão - exercises in fictional anthropology") is a piece created by Vera Mantero at the invitation of DeVIR/CaPA, Faro, in the context of the "Encontros do Devir" festival, held in 2012. It addresses the desertification/depopulation of the Serra do Caldeirão hills, in the Algarve. Combining her own video with film shot by Michel Giacometti, and in particular footage on the subject of work songs, Vera Mantero casts a perceptive eye over traditional activities of rural life in general and knowledge of the oral cultures of northern and southern Portugal and of other continents. The whole piece is populated by voices that come from afar. Silence. The hills. With this sensitive portrait of the people of the Serra do Caldeirão, Vera Mantero speaks to us of people who possess a wisdom we are losing, a wisdom in the connection between body and spirit, between daily life and art. But a wisdom that we can (and should, for our own sake) revive.