I heard a lot about this film when I was a teenager, but what I heard made me lose any desire to watch it until today: after all, I was a teenager at a public school at the time, and the biggest praise for the film came from my most problematic and delinquent classmates, which I had learned to despise in my heart. Not exactly the best publicity.
This year, I decided to watch the film, without high expectations, and thankfully: the worst-case scenarios were confirmed. It is truly worthy of being thrown in a trash can. It should be noted that it is one of those works that was carried out on a whim and improvisation basis, and that those involved survived on small support (the Portuguese Youth Institute and some local authorities), managing to bring the project to a successful conclusion despite the bad weather. It's a regrettable film, both for its poor technical execution and for the ridiculous plot it offers us. Could they have done anything better? Honestly, with the little they had at their disposal, I have my doubts: a more exquisite final result would involve professional film material and editing, formal contracts for locations, bureaucracy and other expenses that the small group of producers could not afford. They did what they could with the little they had, driven more by will than by any economic reason... after all, trying to make a Portuguese film has always been, and will continue to be, a safe and effective way of wasting a fortune almost uselessly.
Therefore, I give my praise to the courage, tenacity and stubborn persistence of Luís Ismael and his team of good-hearted amateurs. Taking Fernando Pessoa's words into practice, they proved to us that everything is worth it when the soul is not small, and left us with a regrettably shameful film that they can rightly be proud of. Even though it is an absolute stain on national cinema, which cannot be shown to any foreign citizen without leaving Portugal in a humiliating situation, it is the film that they fought to create, nurtured like a baby and managed to gave birth.
