“The Boatman began with an image that stayed with me for years: hundreds of people crossing the Tagus mudflats at low tide like ghosts, harvesting clams illegally beneath the Vasco da Gama bridge while life continued normally above. Two worlds coexisted in the same landscape: one visible and organized, the other invisible and surviving. Rather than approach this reality through strict social realism, I wanted to explore its emotional and moral landscape through Joaquim, a man released from prison after sixteen years who finds an unexpected family among undocumented Thai workers. Inspired by Charon, the mythological boatman of lost souls, the film explores guilt, fatherhood, racism and redemption. At its heart, The Boatman is about the violence of invisibility: the people whose labor sustains Europe while remaining unseen, and the fragile solidarity that emerges between those trapped on society’s margins.”