This is one of those old Portuguese films that ended up forgotten in favor of the great, acclaimed classics that we all know and love. Directed by Jorge Brum do Canto, the film is unremarkable, has a basic narrative and an overly theatrical cast, to say the least. However, even so, the film could perfectly be shown sometimes by RTP which, to the infamy of its competitors, continues to be the only Portuguese TV channel to retain the regular showing of national classic cinema (let's hope that this never changes, as unfortunately happened with the regular broadcasting of bullfighting events, kept for years in defense of culture and the representation of all citizens who pay the audiovisual tax, and abolished more recently to satisfy the hatred of the young Woke leftist "doctors").
The film is set during the First World War, in which Portugal had the misfortune of participating: in addition to the danger to the preservation of the African colonies, the desire for international recognition of the new republican leaders, ambitious and noisy in domestic politics, but, for the most part, devoid of individual merits, political capacity and basic diplomatic tact, forced us to make such a sacrifice. Having established itself over the blood of a sovereign king and an heir to the crown, the young Portuguese Republic yearned for the blood of thousands of hastily recruited and trained Portuguese soldiers in order to prove itself worthy of sitting, as an equal, among the great European nations. João Ratão is one of these soldiers, and he leaves behind a girlfriend, to whom he writes copiously in his eagerness to return. Many did, many never returned. The film focuses on this romance between the soldier and the village girl who waits for him, ignoring the sad fate of hunger, mud, lice and death that most Portuguese soldiers suffered in the trenches of La Lys, where many were cut to pieces on April 9, 1918.
The film is unremarkable, and the way it presents its story is poor. I missed a greater understanding of what cinema is and how it works. Brum do Canto seems to be ignoring the quality of the dialogues and the performances of its cast, focusing only on the almost pastoral narrative of a simple and humble country, but patriotic and always willing to make sacrifices when the boss requires it. From this perspective, we can notice the smell of the propaganda of the Estado Novo, the "everything for the nation, nothing against the nation", evoking the heroic memory of the soldiers of Flanders, inglorious victors of a war that had little or nothing to do with our country.
