At 8am, Pablo, 10, and Rodrigo 12, set off on foot for school. There are hardly any cars on the dirt road, and the boys' attention is drawn to the unusual company of a macaw, which began interacting with people after losing its partner, electrocuted by high voltage wires. At this time, the father Evandro 51 is already harvesting bananas in the field with other men from the village. Maria 42 stayed at home, she is still recovering from pneumonia. An explosion breaks the morning silence. 200 meters away, a mining company implodes rocks in the search for lithium. We are in the Brazilian backlands, in the state of Minas Gerais. Dust invades Maria's house, the school and the banana plantation. Evandro complains while Carlos 27 gives up, saying that the only way out is to accept the job at the newly opened mine. Through a mainly observational approach, GERAES follows the rapid changing of the landscape of a small community in the Brazilian backlands with the arrival of a wave of lithium mining companies in the region.

February of 2023, the European Parliament formally approved a law to effectively ban the sale of new petrol and diesel cars in the European Union from 2035, aiming to speed up the switch to electric vehicles and combat climate change. The magnitude of this remarkable decision is felt worldwide, when the shift to renewable energy and the demand for lithium, a key component in the production of batteries for electric vehicles, has resulted in the effervescence of mining activities.

Brazil is among the top six countries in global lithium extraction, but still has a large part of its reserve unexplored. The Vale do Jequitinhonha, in the north of the state of Minas Gerais , is the region with the highest concentration of unexplored Lithium in the country and, consequently, the most coveted region by the heated global market, concentrating 78% of the investments. Canada, Australia, US and most recently Saudi Arabia together, announced the investment of over 4 billion dollars in, what they called, Lithium Valley. Elon Musk was closely following the local elections and already bought extensive land in the region. Nineteen new companies are expected to arrive in 2025. COP 30 will happen in November in Amazon having lithium at center stage for multinational mining negotiations and greenwashing lobby.