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Celebrate 50 years of April 25th with this selection that includes the best Portuguese films available on HBO Max.
HBO Max is truly one of the best streaming platforms in Portugal, and this is due to its varied and complete offer of series and films, whether original or not. Something that also distinguishes it positively is the amount of content spoken in the Camões language that it has made available every month.
Today, the day we celebrate 50 years of the 25th of April, is the perfect occasion to honor the best that is done in Portugal and give our cinema space to shine… To this end, MHD has brought together an eclectic and diverse list made up of several important works, including of course the now obligatory “Capitães de Abril”, by Maria de Medeiros.
CAPTAINS OF APRIL, BY MARIA DE MEDEIROS
In the early hours of April 25, 1974, Rádio Clube Português broadcast the famous and banned song by Zeca Afonso, “Grândola, Vila Morena”. It is a code combined with the clandestine Armed Forces Movement that that morning led a group of captains to execute a coup d’état and put an end to the Estado Novo regime. Captain Salgueiro Maia (Stefano Accorsi) marches with his regiment on Lisbon, determined to take the capital without bloodshed. Meanwhile, Manuel (Frédéric Pierrot), another veteran of the African war, with a handful of comrades takes over Rádio Clube Português, which will become the center for disseminating the progress of the revolution.
Antónia (Maria de Medeiros), Manuel’s wife, unaware of her husband’s activities, worries about the fate of a student, arrested by PIDE. Maia arrives in Lisbon and with the help of Gervásio (Joaquim de Almeida), manages to take her “Chaimites” to the Carmo Barracks, where she receives the surrender of Marcelo Caetano. In the streets, delirious popular enthusiasm acclaimed the captains of April.
THE MAIAS – SCENES FROM ROMANTIC LIFE, BY JOÃO BOTELHO
Carlos da Maia (Graciano Dias) is the last heir of the traditional Portuguese family. He has a degree in medicine, but prefers to spend his time in the company of friends and lovers, with his great friend João da Ega. But that changes when he finally falls in love.
PEDRO AND INES, BY ANTÓNIO FERREIRA
Inspired by the legend of Pedro and Inês, the film tells the story of Pedro (Diogo Amaral), a man admitted to a psychiatric hospital for traveling by car with the corpse of his beloved Inês, who simultaneously recalls the lives of Pedro de Portugal in the middle ages , Pedro Bravo in the present and Pedro Rey in a dystopian future.
THE GOLDEN CAGE, BY RUBEN ALVES
Maria (Rita Blanco) and José Ribeiro (Joaquim de Almeida) are a Portuguese couple who emigrated to France more than three decades ago. She always worked as a concierge in a building in one of the best Parisian neighborhoods and he worked in construction. Everyone likes them, whether for their friendliness and humility, or for their tireless willingness to help those in need. When they receive news of an inheritance in Portugal that makes their old dream of returning to their roots come true, everything seems perfect. However, the truth is that no one is very interested in losing their friendship and, subtly, some people begin to organize themselves in a way that makes them change their minds.
LIVING BAD, BY JOÃO CANIJO
On a weekend, the hotel welcomes its customers. A man lives torn between the attention he needs to give his wife and the space his mother occupies among them. A mother promotes her daughter’s marriage to facilitate her romantic relationship with her son-in-law. Another mother lives through her daughter, preventing her from making her own decisions. Three families at the end of the acceptance cycle.
EVIL LIVING, BY JOÃO CANIJO
In a family hotel on the north coast of Portugal, several women from the same family, from different generations, live. In a relationship poisoned by bitterness, they try to survive in the decaying hotel. The unexpected arrival of a granddaughter in this claustrophobic space causes disturbance and the awakening of latent hatred and accumulated grudges.
PILGRIMAGE, BY JOÃO BOTELHO
March 1537, Fernão Mendes Pinto (Cláudio da Silva), escaping the poverty and narrowness of his life, left for India in search of fame and fortune. Thus begins this adventure film that recounts the misadventures and successes of this writer, an adventurer, yes, but also a pilgrim, penitent, ambassador, soldier and slave. Fernão Mendes Pinto was everything and everywhere. “By the grace of God” he returned safely to leave us an extraordinary travel book. The Pilgrimage now presented narrates parts of this acute, exacerbated, exaggerated, fascinating observation.
AL BERTO, BY VINCENT ALVES DO Ó
In Sines, at a time of revolution, Al Berto (Ricardo Teixeira) embodies a changing generation. Al Berto creates a group of friends and together they exude youth, eccentricity, dreams of change, but shortly after the revolution, the city is still not prepared for so much freedom – freedom to love without fear. Alberto Raposo Pidwell Tavares, who adopted the pseudonym Al Berto, was born in 1948 in Coimbra, but lived his entire childhood and adolescence in Sines, on the Alentejo coast. After an exile in Brussels, between 1967 and 1974, where he studied painting, he returned to Portugal to dedicate himself to literature. Al Berto died on June 13, 1997, from lymphoma.
THE SIBYL, BY EDUARDO BRITO
Distributed and produced by Leopardo Filmes and supported by RTP, “A Sibila” is a historical drama that adapts the novel of the same name by Agustina Bessa-Luís, which portrays the relationship between a young writer and her aunt, vibrant characters inspired by real figures, living in the northern interior of Portugal in the mid-20th century. Feelings of jealousy, admiration and the complex magnetism between two strong women are magnificently portrayed by the great Portuguese writer in her most iconic book, adapted to film with great precision.
This portrays the relationship between two strong women and the process of creating an emblematic national romance. Its cast includes names such as Maria João Pinho, Joana Ribeiro, Madalena Aragão, Sandra Faleiro, Rui Neto, Emília Silveste or Ana Padrão.
ZEUS, BY PAULO FILIPE
The real story, but unknown to the vast majority of Portuguese people, of Manuel Teixeira Gomes (Sinde Filipe), one of the first Presidents of the Portuguese Republic. This is a President like no other in the world, a renowned writer of erotic literature, who after resigning from his presidential position boards the Dutch freighter Zeus and sets off towards the unknown – destiny takes him to Algeria where Teixeira Gomes decides to be reborn and recognize your right to be happy. The film’s plot integrates the drama of the political events that preceded the establishment of the dictatorship, the confrontation of great personalities, the humor of our protagonist, his exile, the romanticism of his passions, the greatness of his friendships and the stunning landscapes he travels through. .
THE HOME FAIRY, BY JOÃO MAIA
The Portuguese comedy “A Fada do Lar” arrives on streaming, which tells the story of Vera (Joana Metrass), a single mother with two young children, who is forced to work two jobs to survive after the father of her children disappears in an unknown part . During the day she is a cashier in a supermarket and at night she works in a bar. stripteasethus seeking not only to raise her children but also to pay the debts that her ex-partner left her.
Harassed at both jobs, one day she reacts violently when a bar customer is more daring, being sentenced in court to do community service in a nursing home, where her irreverence and youth will clash with the authoritarianism and inhumanity of the director. For the elderly living in the home, Vera is a breath of fresh air that little by little will change their lives, becoming the true fairy of the home.
INDIA, BY TELMO CHURRO
Tiago, Raul and Manuel (Pedro Inês, José Manuel Mendes and João Carvalho, respectively) represent three generations of the same family. In this story, their lives are linked to that of Karen (Denise Fraga), a Brazilian tourist who is touring Lisbon and to whom Tiago will serve as a guide. A film to watch on HBO Max.
THE END OF INNOCENCE, BY JOAQUIM LEITÃO
Inês (Oksana Tkach) is a teenager with a seemingly perfect life. Coming from a wealthy family, she attends one of the best schools in the country and lives almost exclusively with people from her social stratum. However, after classes, without any adult around her noticing, she and her closest friends participate in risky sexual games, use the internet compulsively and frequent Lisbon’s nightlife, where they regularly consume all types of drugs. . Far from the control of their parents, who believe they are completely safe, inside and outside the home, their lives enter a spiral of total destruction.
THE TYRANT FATHER, BY JOÃO GOMES
This one remake The 1941 classic can be seen on HBO Max and tells the story of a theater company, of men and women in love and of mistakes and misunderstandings. Chico (Miguel Raposo) loves Tatão (Jessica Athayde), who is courted by Artur (Diogo Amaral). Graça (Carolina Loureiro) loves Chico, but doesn’t know that he loves Tatão. Santana (José Raposo) writes a play for the “Grandelinhas” that will serve as a script for Chico’s passion and convince Tatão that he is a rich count. The play is then staged and everyone ends up in prison.
CAPTAIN FALCÃO, BY JOÃO LEITÃO
Portugal, 1960s. Captain Falcão (Gonçalo Waddington) is recognized as the most patriotic of superheroes. Totally loyal to António de Oliveira Salazar (José Pinto), the Portuguese head of state, he is dedicated to combating all threats to the nation. And strange anti-fascist movements begin to emerge that could put the Estado Novo into question…
Falcão, together with his courageous companion, Puto Perdiz (David Chan Cordeiro), will have to find a way to eliminate everyone who gets in his way and has the audacity – and lack of scruples – to stand up against the Portuguese dictatorship. , something he believed in all his life.
And you, have you already chosen the film on HBO Max with which you will celebrate April 25th?
