Behind the scenes "Silence ça pousse" (FR) on France 5 broadcast
Discovery of the natural rush fields in the Ribatejo. In fact, they are deserted old rice fields in which the rush grows in the wild without any human intervention.
Old rice fields means a lot of moisture. Actually, the rush grows in 20 to 30cm of water. We'll have to put on boots to be able to capture some images.
Nuno and Luisa ! Nuno is a native of Castanheira village which he left to carry on his computer studies and find a job. His parents stayed in the village and, like their own parents, made traditional Portuguese rush bags they sold at the markets.
Tired of living in the capital, Nuno came back to his native village and decided to revisit the design of these traditional rush bags. The success was immediate so that his parents were overwhelmed. To help them, all the village elders gather every day in a small premises provided by the town hall and weave these pieces of rushes that would be used to make Nuno's bags.
Nuno's parents (below her mother) are still working and take part in the cleaning and sizing of the rush stems after drying and before dyeing.
All parts of the bags are weaved on an old traditional and manually operated loom made of simple wooden beams.
