Plot

Morning of February 21st, 1935. Lisbon. Saturn in the Sun. Mars conjunct Pluto. Fernando Pessoa is reading the stars. Should he attend the award ceremony? His poetry book - Message - received an literary award of the SPN - the State Propaganda Secretariat. In that same morning, António Ferro, an old friend and now Director of the SPN, comes knocking at his door - "Fernando, I need you to be there. I risked myself to give you this award!" .Fernando Pessoa doesn't open the door. In another bedroom of Lisbon, Cecilia Meireles and her husband Correia Dias are preparing for the same ceremony. Cecília hopes that Pessoa attends the award ceremony. A few days before, the poet left her waiting for hours in a cafe. She wants an explanation. But in that day, in that February 21st, 1935, another person will knock at Pessoa's door. Will Álvaro de Campos convince Fernando Pessoa to go? Against the backdrop of Portugal's authoritarian political reality in the mid -1930s, Second Rate Poetry (Poesia de Segunda Categoria) portrays a factual event - the literary awards ceremony organized by the National Propaganda Secretariat (Secretariado Nacional de Propaganda - SPN) in Lisbon on February 21, 1935. Interwoven into the portrayal of an awards ceremony are several themes: the political will to limit and direct literary and artistic creation; awards as systems of ideological control; the connection between excess and genius; the differences between success and glory.