In the original work, the Nobel Prize for Literature conceives a meeting of the late poet, Fernando Pessoa, with his heteronym, at a time when in Europe Mussolini’s fascism, Hitler’s Nazism, Salazar’s Estado Novo, and the Spanish civil war begins.
With the Brazilian actor Chico Diaz, in the interpretation of the main role, the heteronym of Fernando Pessoa (Ricardo Reis), in addition to Luís Lima Barreto (Fernando Pessoa), Victoria Guerra (Marcenda) and Catarina Wallenstein (Lídia), the film takes place in Lisbon, in 1936, the year in which the doctor Ricardo Reis returns from the self-exile of more than a decade in Brazil.
The previews of the film, shot in black and white, by the director’s decision, to create a credible environment, where the characters move, afflicted or excited, will take place on September 20, at the Teatro Nacional São João, in Porto, and, the next day, at the Centro Cultural de Belém (CCB), in Lisbon.
On the José Saramago Path, at CCB, there will also be an outdoor exhibition, which will be inaugurated on September 15 at the José Saramago Foundation, composed of graphic materials from the film and the famous agenda of the Portuguese writer, elaborated by himself from his own investigation in the National Library on the 1936 press, which served as the basis for the plot of the literary work.
