

A village drowning, a man hanging — and Pessoa quotes no one asked for.
One bad thing never comes alone, says the people. The village Estrela is threatened by the waters of the new Alqueva dam. It will become an "island". But, as one bad thing never comes alone, the daily lives of the inhabitants of this small mountain village are changed by the death of Adriano. "In order to create, I destroyed myself; I have so much externalized within myself that within me I exist only outwardly. I am the living scene where various actors perform various plays." (from Livro do Desassossego by Fernando Pessoa), as Adriano liked to quote Adriano. He committed suicide on the day of the village feast, hanging himself in the main square. For Adriano, the main square of the village has long been the center of the world. Adriano felt surrounded, depressed, unable to escape his destiny. "No one can stop a man who travels with suicide on his lapel" Adriano repeated to Lisete, always to the point of exhaustion.
Acting
José Airosa's suffocated, poetry-reciting final performance.
Cinematography
The drowning village — real Alqueva footage, devastating.

Director
Fernando Matos Silva
Trivia, insights & behind the scenes
The Alqueva dam was Europe's largest artificial lake project, displacing thousands — this film captures real villages before submersion.
Director Fernando Matos Silva spent years documenting these communities; Adriano's hanging was filmed in an actual condemned square scheduled for flooding.