Artist and filmmaker Pia Borg invites the viewer to a journey to the interior of the South Australian desert: a landscape of sand stretching far out of sight, which is an opal mining site and has served as the setting of science-fiction films. Different improbable futures have been projected upon this place, which has apparently stopped in time and where abandonment has settled in. Between fiction and documentary, the silence accompanying this film is only interrupted by the narration that guides us, describing a research project underway. “Silica” invites reflection on the past and the future, reality and fiction, truth and replica, identity, mythology, and superstition. Of Maltese/Australian origin, Pia Borg lives and works between London and Los Angeles. Her work has been displayed in exhibitions and has won awards at film festivals. This is her first time at Curtas Vila do Conde. (RM)