Fiction shot between July and August 1975 in Alentejo
and at Tóbis Portuguesa Studios in Lisbon.
Any resemblance with occurred or occurring facts in this or other places
was supposed to be pure coincidence.
Produced by
The Ghosts of Alcacer-Kibir
Story by
Acting in the film
Songs by
and waltz by
Sound
Photography
A film by
So, it's here?
It's really here.
Go prepare the clown scene and the one with Africa.
All right.
Look... We should uncouple the mare, she's thirsty.
Yes.
- Should we unload? - Near the pit maybe, it's safer.
Okay, near the trees.
Go, I'm gonna see what's going on.
Look...
Wait behind those trees, coz I feel we can't set up the shaft, ok?
Tosco, stop painting your face!
Let's practise while Boanova doesn't come.
Come on. Let's go.
Come on, with the balls!
1, 2, 3, 1, 2, 3...
Come on. One up, the other down.
So, do we stay?
- No. We better take off. - Do you think so?
- There's nothing here for us. -Well, let's go.
Who rules the body it's the blood.
Who rules the blood it's the heart.
Who rules the workers...
Who rules the body it's the blood.
Who rules the blood it's the heart.
Who rules the workers it's the workers.
Get up and let's make some coffee.
- Hi Boanova. - Hi Camolas, good morning.
I'm going and my boots they can wear out and falter.
I'm going and what I'm seeing I'm telling, I'm saying.
Wanderer, wanderer...
Wanderer lives where the sun strikes.
I'm going and my boots they can wear out and falter.
I'm going and what I'm seeing I'm telling, I'm saying.
Wanderer, wanderer...
Wanderer lives where the sun strikes.
When the great hungers have gone by
by which Alentejo was ravaged...
The people's misadventures.
All the people in misadventure for the humiliated living
seek good fortune in adventure, await the desired king.
The king never came back.
And you people went away.
When the great hungers have gone by, by which Alentejo was ravaged,
through the departures of the world was this people leaving.
The king never arrived.
And you people have left.
In searching for the king... for justice and law.
Match won, match lost, all earth covered.
What king, what void?
All the empire rests on the exploited force.
What king? What void?
The king is you.
And the scepter?
The hoe handle.
And the law?
The law...
...of the shared life!
The people's misadventures...
Camolas! Come here!
Let's rehearse this scene.
I come here very tired, from far away. And you?
You ask me... You ask me where I come from!
Where do you come from?!
Wait for it, damn.
Africa!
Tosco! Come here.
Look, the three of us are very tired!
Very tired...
A 500 years journey!
Here, read it.
Where are you going traveler, with that strange partner?
Are you a pilgrim or a emigrant, that vowed to return someday?
If I left my home, 500 years ago it was.
If memory serves me right...
The police...
- What's that? - I don't know.
- Will it be for us? - Not gonna wait to see.
I think it's for us. Let's go.
Africa! Come on, quickly.
Go that way, I go this way!
So, it's him?
Yes, it is, my chief.
- Are you sure? - Of course I am.
Give me that.
Bitch.
Fucking whore!
There you are, you bastard!
Can you see this, father Amilcar?
Commander, do you know what's going on?
Patience, we should be patient.
Please commander, seat here, if you please.
Commander, I have the decree. Want me to read it?
Read it, read it.
Subversive?!
- Revolutionary. - "Police powers and regulations".
"Article 12".
"In the security services and administrative police performance"
"the General Commissioner will be assisted by two army officers, captains or juniors".
It's not only a subversive action, but really the seeds of a revolution.
"...for all intents his rights to promotion. Article 13".
- "To the respective officers... - May I come in?
- "...the licences inspection" - Yes.
- "of gun use and carrying by foreigners", - They are arriving.
- "retail establishments, gambling houses", - Wait in the courtyard.
"lodges, pensions and related, loan offices and establishments under liens".
"Article 14".
"Regarding the security police functions, it's their competence:"
"1: law enforcement and public safety control".
"2: Policing of traffic, vehicles and public places and streets".
"3: Policing of temples, celebrations and public meeting".
"4: Execution of police service intended to protect..."
It's seems they want to occupy the lands.
The security forces and the army would never allow it.
Any bloodshed must be avoided. Anything but anarchy.
And Bolshevism.
- "5. The execution of the proceedings--" - The agitators are arriving.
Father could scared them with some of his vestry spiders.
- After all, the church has its duties. - And big.
"Article 5. The measures taken by the police departments"
"in case of extraordinary emergency and others..."
(portuguese folk chant)
Montês burned the wheat field to divide us.
He knows we can discuss our problems while we are on strike.
Only the agrarian reform can resolve them!
This is the most important thing for the working class.
Our unity in the struggle for the agrarian reform!
There's more.
For example... The priests' attitude!
That treats us like... tame animals.
- Or pack animals. - The priest comes.
What do you want, Father Amilcar?
My son. If you receive my speeches.
And if you have the commandments hidden in your heart.
Fortunate is your ear that listens in attention to what Wisdom tells.
Turn your heart to prudence.
Because if you invoke the Wisdom...
If you turn your heart to Prudence.
If you seek it like it was money.
And if you dig it as one digs up a treasure.
Then you will understand all things and you will find God's science.
Because if Wisdom enters your heart...
and if Science appeals to your soul...
Wisdom will retain you and Prudence will grant you freedom from the evil way.
And from the man who says wicked things.
Look at this idiot.
Because the righteous will dwell the Earth,
and there will remain the simple minded.
However the ungodly will be erased from the Earth
and those who work wickedly will be exterminated.
(speaks in latin)
Great is the elephant's fear of the fire
and so he flees from it.
It fears it more than of what provokes the bulls and other feral animals.
Which are cries and shouts of many people.
The priests were astonished...
with what these tame pack animals could do here.
Alas! Alas!
What kind of land is this to which they are taking me?
More.
A little bit more.
What is this?
This is a triangle that finds treasures.
This land is full of treasure. It's true.
To find... If only I knew. Boanova knows some litanies.
The treasure's litanies?
I teach you one.
South of Albernoa, thirty steps into the sun at noon
it's buried...
...a silver rosary!
Over there. Go!
Hey sucker! That's your place?
Take these shit to the commander.
Come with me.
What do we have to do with this?
And you, soldier? What do you have to do with this?
Let's go!
And you, let's go.
Fast!
Do you think we can call the police now?
It's not the time.
My Commander, may I?
Come in.
- My Commander, they are... - Bring them here.
God's enemies burned the Earth.
With it, people end the hunger of people.
They dropped their arms as a way of demanding what they aren't entitled to.
Following orders from foreign renegades.
False prophets who never cease to put on the poor of spirit
the seeds of revolt and the disregard for the ways of the Lord.
Through them disgrace will fall.
Renegades, prophets, artists, writers...
People's parasites who want to see riots and blood on the streets again.
Bread is a sacred thing.
Sacred is the word of God.
(...)
Corporal!
Join these people with those who are on strike.
Tell my master to call the police.
So?
What they did to you?
I don't understand.
- And here? - The peasants are on strike.
The wheatfield was burned and they want to blame the peasants, it's all I know.
(revolutionary song)
They are surrounding the farm. Did you see?
- What they wanted you for? - How can I know?
The guy gives some speech. And you?
We are on strike.
- And the burned land? - It was the chief.
He ordered the burning and in the night the foreman turned out dead.
With switched shoes like it was us that burned the wheatfield and killed him.
It was a grain.
And you? What are you?
Is it this one, father Amilcar? Is this the leader?
Denouncing is another deadly sin.
- Take this man inside. - Yes, my commander.
You, the nigger and those two bastards follow me.
Come on, go away.
Now!
Go!
You, dog!
Charge.
Charge!
- How are you? - Follow me.
- Good day, reverend. - Please come in.
- This way. - Mário Montez, nice to meet you.
- He's inside with the guard. - Send the guard away.
Sit down!
It's best if you confess everything so that we don't lose more time.
It's just to confirm what we already know.
What a nice guitar.
???
Damn!
These kicks must belong to some giant!
This junk smells just like açorda!
Wait.
What's this?
A book.
All the people in misadventure and humiliated living
seek good fortune in adventure, await the desired king.
The king never came back, and you people went away.
When the great hungers have gone by by which Alentejo was ravaged,
through the departures of the world were these people leaving!
Smells like cheesy bullshit...
Neither King, nor Jack
nor Queen, nor Duke.
What counts is the strength of this stick!
(religious singing)
And Jesus sent me.
"Jesus choose me".
And the Hunger of Jesus.
Good Jesus is mine.
And Jesus is in the sky.
And I'm on Earth.
And Jesus is in Glory.
I'm coming to it.
"Hail Mary, full of grace. The Lord is with thee".
"Blessed art thou amongst women, and blessed is the fruit of thy womb, Jesus".
You never came at this time.
It was Montez's foreman that was killed?
That's why I came this way.
- Are you involved? - The police has just released me.
Go to my house.
"Holy Mary, Mother of God, pray to God for us sinners".
"Now and at the hour of our death. Amen, Jesus".
You can spend the night here, but better not warm the place.
Everyone is hot.
Montez's foreman turned out dead at the riverbanks.
They wanted to throw him in the river but didn't have the time.
Someone must have showed up, 'coz he only got his feet wet.
It's their manoeuvre.
To try to stop the peasants' fight.
The foreman was a traitor and nobody liked him,
they ordered the burning of the wheatfield and then killed him.
Now, they blame the strikers for everything.
They blame us for urging the people.
They used you for something that you ignore.
The stories you tell can be a good seed providing they land in prepared ground.
They know that.
They used you for something...
That's why you must leave, at least for a while.
The repression will be terrible. The people are starting to organize
and they will break their legs.
- Do you need something? - Prepare the dinner.
You grow old by the fire.
Ah, well.
Do you want to take your company?
I had to see that.
An old woman looking at the fire... Tell what's on her mind.
Born to always live in the same place.
My eyes have cried a lot.
It wasn't because of the fire.
We see as much sadness in staying as in roaming around.
As in roaming around...
Sometimes...
Because I walk so much....
It seems that I've no time to think about what I see.
Now, the ones who stop are the old and the dead who don't have a choice.
The worthy are taken to the war or they run away to France.
And the women go along. Now or after, they make it.
They tell it was always like this, whenever the country is poor.
There's still a lot of wealth. It's poorly distributed...
But there's still a lot of wealth.
For years we travel the world, always for the same reason.
I see less and less people willing to suffer without complaining.
Fortunately.
Those who don't want to understand, won't understand.
We must be smarter than them.
If we don't give them a reason what can they do against us?
Still today...
Just now.
They pointed at us.
It was them!
They ended up letting us go.
I've no idea why that devil blamed us.
What's worthed is that no one wants to get dirty.
And you think that they will let you in peace?
What guilt had the people who live here?
Honest people, who everyone knew.
Accused, arrested. Forced to run or be killed.
You can't be hard on people, you're not from here.
Just by your words, no one knows what side you are on.
They have reasons to distrust.
First came the little rats that broke the strike,
because they didn't understand the meaning of the fight.
As if they weren't exploited like those who didn't have a peace of land.
The little rats ran away to France and Germany, now even ours follow them.
Life is even harder for those who stay.
And the repression more terrible.
The little rats never understood this.
A little bit of property sufficed them.
Even if it won't produced a thing.
Run Boanova. The Guard marked you and won't let you rest.
The freedom of the bird always ends at the shotgun's edge.
If I were you I would jump.
It's better for you to disappear while they remember you around here.
It's easier if you go to the south, through the river.
Then it's all clear. But keep a low profile!
They must have increased their vigilance.
And our stuff?
Do you really need it?
It's the equipment.
Joana will go there.
One of you can go with her.
You... You and...
Let's go, quickly.
Catch.
This book is pointless!
If this books didn't exist, how could man know this stuff?
In that battle of Alcacer-Kibir
the king and all his warriors died. One or two may have survived!
Between the dead... they found 10,000 guitars.
So many guitars!
So maybe you were there.
Why they wanted so many?!
To celebrate the victory?
They lost!
A man!
To have the strength to win a battle!
Must be afraid of losing it!
And I lost.
Don't mess with my guitar!
It found it in Alcacer-Kibir!
The guitar... It's mine...
You were in Angola? Or you've been killing blacks in Alcacer-Kibir?
You stole it... It's mine.
He's deaf, he's mute?
How can he be a national hero?
Calm down.
This guy could be part of that shitty opera.
Take the guitar!
Wait, I'm coming with you.
Wait, I'm coming with you!
Wait there!
I'm gonna stop this shit!
What's wrong?
My guitar was stolen.
- Forget it. - I can't. It was an esteemed guitar.
Do the clown for me, Camolas.
Look, my little guitar, you bastard.
It was you who stole it?
Give it, give it...
Come on. I'm glad you came, let's clean this up.
Tosco! The drum.
Go hitch the mare, ok?
Your hat.
You go alone.
Tell my father I went to see my godmother.
That you don't know more.
I'll go with you guys.
We've got to change this life.
I won't stay here doing nothing, waiting for things to come.
How can we go through this river?
There's a boat coming.
- Good morning. - Well, hello.
It's you, the chief of this thing?
- Yes. - This book, is it yours?
It is...!
- Are you here to pass through? - If there's a seat.
Can I go with you guys?
If there's a boat.
If the red sea opened up to let Moses pass,
why do you close your waters to my feet, river?
A boat...
That's talking to the river. Camolas!
Look, a boat is coming.
Look, that old woman with flowers in her hair.
It's a bride!
It looks more like a crazy one with flowers on her horns.
We need to go through the river.
- Are you going to some market? - To all markets that we find.
- What's your business? - We tell stories, we sing...
We juggle.
You can come with me.
Come with me. You can stay at our home tonight.
It's not possible.
We have a long road ahead and many people waiting to hear us.
I'm going and my boots they can wear out and falter.
Unavoidable commitments.
- There's no time to waste. - Only this night.
You will take a good rest and a good meal.
And leave tomorrow morning.
I would like it if my father could meet you.
He knows a lot of stories.
He traveled a lot.
He's been in many lands.
Do you know where I was born?
In India.
My mother was a princess.
My father kidnapped her.
He knows a lot of stories.
I mix them all...
I can't tell any story.
I can't learn them all.
Come with me.
My house is huge.
Before, there were big parties there.
I never saw any.
I'm going and my boots they can wear out and falter.
Come with me.
Accept.
She can't hurt us.
Do you really live by telling stories?
Do you tell stories for a living?
What are you doing here, sir?
I'm here to shave master Dom Gonçalo.
Leave.
Your daughter has run away.
She left without me noticing.
She's returning with outsiders.
We crossed the line.
How we came to this without you even lifting an arm?
Tramps!
They are tramps!
And she...
...will be another tramp!
How can you?
You can't.
How long...
...there's no blood
running from this hands?
They can take revenge.
They?
Who?
Turn off the lights!
Jesus!
Those who bring strength you can't use anymore!
Shut up!
I'm done with your madness.
You never had supernatural power.
I always pretended to believe you had.
So I could have a reason to do those things I wanted to.
Get out of my sight.
Get out!
The hero who refuses to die fighting
becomes a clown!
Let's shave...
Master Dom Gonçalo.
The maid.
She raised me.
Without her... I'm nothing.
Come here.
Who are those people?
Storytellers.
They do juggling.
They sing songs.
I wanted to see a party so badly.
A ball.
Your father is sick again. He drank to much.
He's delusional.
Verina!
He's calling me.
Severina!
Take them to the living room!
A turkey!
There shall be a party!
Tonight I will tell stories of the magnificent history of this castle
now plunged into shadows.
I will pull from my old books and from these walls
stories that will make the ghosts themselves shudder with horrors.
Shut up, they can hear us.
Don't you see she's crazy, there's nobody here.
Wanderers...
All seated here.
So, what did that mummy want me here for?
Beast from the wild
with a black face
take this little girl
that fears funny faces.
And my mother, how was she?
She was young when I met her. Beautiful...
Four or five years old...
All covered in pearl necklaces!
With slaves and rich bracelets
with wings and golden wigs.
Always decorated with flowers.
Like angels are painted.
A rich chaplet.
I came to know with such imagination
that she was an angel sent by god
to capture all that horde of devils
so they couldn't assault her soul
before she arrived at the chamber
that by glory
it is assigned to her.
For her good deeds
that she ended up doing.
For the last time I saw her
drowned among reeds.
Those flowers that she always put in her hair
taken by the river.
Give me those flowers!
You look like a gypsy or a wanderer.
Is he one of the tramps you brought home?
He sings beautiful songs and he came to a party.
What song you got, wanderer?
So many and so diverse.
And all of them are true.
I got one about a king that went to Africa to hunt Moors,
he lost skin and hair...
and on top of that all the treasures of the kingdom
I got others about people who wander only to learn through what they see.
- Do you also tell the future? - No.
I'm not a fortune teller
and I don't believe in prophecies,
nor in the occult arts.
My fate is made by these hands,
not by the lines that are drawn in them.
The wanderer is a rationalist.
- That's a surprise. - We could dress him with a bards' cape.
A party...
A big party!
I will order my men to announce it
wielding banners and silk flags!
Decorated with the arms of this house.
So that the name of Dom Gonçalo
be heard again!
Lord of India
and Africa.
High, from Portugal!
Desolated resident
of a country that succumbs...
Ladies
and gentlemen.
What we will tell you this evening
it's the true story of princess Cassandra
and King Agamemnon.
King Agamemnon was at war many years,
on the other side of the ocean.
There he went with his brother Menelaus.
To look for the lost king who never died
but was a prisoner of the infidels.
And who shall return in a foggy dawn
King Sebastian went to Alcacer-Kibir.
Spear in his hand. Charge, charge!
With his horse packed with history books and fado guitars,
so he could sing victory.
And King Sebastian had already mortgaged all the nation, cheap,
so he could buy soldiers, spears and armor
to buy sacred books, future victories.
And King Sebastian was a good ruler, he went abroad to rule.
He began to speak. "This is all mine"
"I'm the boss, let's work".
But it was the Moor who knew the desert, from the back to the front.
He was the one who knew that the desert burns and hurts.
He was... The home club!
And King Sebastian got his ass so kicked
that when he returned he found
his spanish neighbourhood seated on the bed
and lying on the throne, and the country with another owner.
And King Sebastian ended up broken,
a crying baby, without lap or breast,
drinking and telling everything, explaining and dying!
Yes, but slowly.
And he breathed too much of that fog
that he died of tuberculosis.
There was a funeral with princesses and kings and everything in between and...
Long live Portugal and our colonies!
His wife, the queen
stayed in the palace, alone
with vengeance taking over her heart.
She couldn't forget the oldest of her three children.
A beautiful princess
that King Agamemnon killed as a sacrifice!
Advised by the witches.
Only that way he could cross the sea
and win all the wars.
The queen was full of dirty thoughts.
She stood by the sea waiting for him.
Then, this terrible thing happened!
It's what we're gonna show you, our beloved audience!
On this side, King Agamemnon!
Standing at the bow of his ship!
With princess Cassandra!
Carrying a little child!
Then, the queen's ship will get on scene.
Alas!
Where am I being taken?
Oh God of the way that made me loose myself twice!
Where are you taking me?
Take pity on my lost house!
My father made such sacrifices and yet our house was destroyed
And I? Alas!
Stop that, Cassandra!
There comes Queen Clitemnestra.
I swear I'll ask her for support.
Here I am, back to my palace!
I thank God for taking me this far
and for bringing me back to this path.
Our mutual feelings guided you my way.
If this is the good, our duty tells us to make it last!
It's a terrible disgrace for a woman to be left alone, without her husband!
My eyes are marked by all the nights awoke, crying for you!
But today I can jump with happiness, because all has passed
and you survived everything!
I bring a lot of gold!
I asked you to take Cassandra.
God asks those who rule to be soft.
Welcome her like she was family,
since fate brought her together with all the loot.
Our palace is just like it was when you left.
Our house doesn't know poverty.
Walk over this ship that was never struck by war,
so you can enjoy the happiness you deserve.
Get in.
I'm talking to you, Cassandra.
Walk over this ship, and lose your pride.
Your luck was big so you could find an opulent master.
Those who rose from nothing are always hard on slaves.
At our house you will be treated well.
I'm trying to speak to your heart,
but I'm certain you only know your wild language!
You look at me like I was some trapped animal,
you must be crazy!
I shall not speak to you again!
Alas!
Oh God of the way, where are you taking me?
To what house?
Alas!
You, who made me lose myself twice! I'm ashamed of speaking about it.
Alas!
Enough!
Is this the story you got?
There's solitary victories!
Or defeat and death!
I want to hear a story...
A story like those that are worth hearing.
I rode with my men
with the flag unfurled
on my horse!
We were five!
They were 500!
5000!
We couldn't surround them, so we drove right into them!
The artillery opened the way for us!
Victory!
They made the sky deflect the splinters from us.
All around us, under our feet,
Legs!
Heads!
Arms!
Don't stop the corpses
on our ancient soil,
if our feet
step on the body of our enemy!
Nah, people it's over. That was before.
Tosco!
The stick.
Who rules the workers it's the workers.
This will not change with songs.
Nor with small talk.
We are all wanderers.
They treat us like this.
Wanderers or not, we will always be the exploited force.
Until the anger changes.
It's time to stop wandering.
In the wind, with the birds.
Full of anger inside our head.
Closed on our hands.
Anger must be made organized power.
Our power.
The power of the Earth.
Or else someone with guns will speak with our voice.
By us.
They are speaking with our voice.
By us.
The Empire and the Cross must be destroyed.
Just like the arrogance.
Stop the looting.
People cannot live only with the Empire's loot
without being colonized.
Who rules the body it's the blood.
Who rules the blood it's the heart.
Who rules the workers...
it's the workers with guns.
The creative force is us.
Wanderers and everything.
The people must be organized.
The police!
Tie this man.
Tie this man!
Corporal!
Go see what's behind the bales.
It's useless.
Who rules the body it's the blood.
Who rules the blood it's the heart.
Who rules the workers it's the workers with guns.
With guns, with guns...
This film is dedicated to the Movements of African Liberation
that the people of Portugal own for the fall of Salazar's fascism
and for the end of the colonial empire.