Caminhos Magnéticos

Raymond Vachs has been living in Portugal for ages – so long in fact, that his family is more from there than the old country: France. Raymond has also seen how the country has changed over the years, decidedly for the worse, and is therefore not exactly delighted about his daughter’s choice of husband: a 'gumba' with government connections who gets calls from some dud(e) called Donald. But now the wedding day has come – and Raymond, after some insults and slights by the new power elite, finally cracks: his will be the longest night of the soul, during which he’ll vent all his anger and disgust at the Tagus. When Pêra wrote the first outlines for his third Branquinho da Fonseca-adaptation, the film’s vision of a (not so) crypto-oligarchical state with military types and business thugs calling the shots felt like a science fiction lark – now this colourful delirium, this psychedelic meltdown almost feels like a documentary.