InstituteFestivalProfessionals
EN/NL
Donate
Loading...
MyIDFA
Still Life
About IDFA
Archive
Still Life
IDFA 2019

Still Life

Natureza morta
Susana de Sousa Dias
Portugal, France
2005
72 min
n.a.
Festival history

We all know about Nazi Germany, fascist Spain and Mussolini’s Italy, but it’s the four decades of António de Oliveira Salazar’s regime in Portugal that rates as the longest dictatorship of 20th-century Europe. In contrast to his colleagues, this absolute ruler managed to maintain a sheen of normalcy, at least to the outside world. Under him, Portugal became a member of the United Nations and a founder of NATO.

Based on news reports, propaganda films and images from prison archives, Susana de Sousa Dias paints a picture of this almost forgotten and barely processed era in Portuguese history. We are confronted with processions that emphasized the bond between church and army, much flag waving, children in uniform and police photos of political prisoners. Meanwhile, Salazar waves affably from a balcony. After a relatively harmonious beginning, riots in Lisbon and bloody colonial wars become commonplace. This is a bird’s-eye view of history playing in slow motion—as if it were all just a bad dream.

Credits
Director
Production
    Xavier Carniaux,
    Ansgar Schäfer for Kintop
Cinematography
    Vasco Riobom
    Vasco Riobom
Music
    António de Sousa Dias
    António de Sousa Dias
Editing
World Sales
    Doc & Film International
    Doc & Film International
Screening copy
    Doc & Film International
    Doc & Film International

Videos

Images

0