It tells the story of a Brazilian filmmaker, Lucas. When his mother, Alice, dies in Belo Horizonte, he searches for his family's Portuguese roots across the ocean, discovering an intricate love story. Lucas's father, Olavo, was the son of a very wealthy Portuguese industrialist, Joaquim, who was disinherited when he married Alice, Lucas's mother, a very poor woman who lived in a rooming house in the city of Porto, Portugal. With the Second World War looming, they all left for Brazil, settling in Minas Gerais. While investigating his distant past, Lucas makes discoveries about possible criminal acts committed by his own father, Olavo. Lucas is helped by Teresa, a young Portuguese woman who works as a restorer of old Portuguese churches in the interior of Portugal. Lucas, assisted by Teresa, seeks to reconstruct the stories of his mother Alice, and ends up falling in love with Teresa.
Cinematography
Portugal and Minas Gerais look impossibly gorgeous and sad
Acting
Ana Moreira's Teresa: devastating restraint
Writing
Family secrets unravel with painful precision
Director
Oswaldo Caldeira
Trivia, insights & behind the scenes
The film explores the little-discussed wave of Portuguese emigration to Brazil during WWII, when neutral Portugal became a departure point for refugees and opportunists alike.
Director Oswaldo Caldeira was 78 when he made this — his final film — bringing an unusually patient, meditative quality to a story about time catching up with us.
BR
