Our Father – The Last Days of a Dictator, José Filipe Costa‘s latest feature film, had its world premiere at the International Film Festival Rotterdam (IFFR), where it was part of the ​​Big Screen Competition, a “diverse competition bridging the gap between popular, classic and art house cinema”.

Starring António Mota, the film reinterprets the last weeks of the life of António de Oliveira Salazar (1889-1970) based on real events. Bedridden and weakened in the São Bento Palace, Salazar is under the care of his housekeeper Maria de Jesus (Catarina Avelar) and his personal doctor Eduardo Coelho (Guilherme Filipe), who do everything they can to maintain a farce in which Salazar believes, in convalescence and until his death, that he still leads the country. The IFFR website states that the film ‘transforms a remarkable true story into a compelling drama that deftly navigates politics, upper society, and the fragile illusions that sustain power. Moments of absurdity and satirical edge punctuate this portrait of a man clinging to illusions of power in a world that no longer answers to him.’

Speaking to The Hollywood Reporter, the director and IHC researcher explained that the script was based on the diaries of Salazar’s personal doctor: ‘The diaries were published in a book, but it would have been impossible to be published during the dictatorship because he was very honest. He says he was tapped by the political police, and he was also censored. The doctor of the dictator was under censorship! So the regime went against its own creator, and that is a very fascist trait..’ However, José Filipe Costa told Lusa that the film is a fiction that contains ‘a lot of imagination, a side of artistic creation that has to do with trying to enter a bubble with hints of claustrophobia that is dictated by these characters’.

We’re looking forward to its premiere in Portugal!

Picture: A shot from the film