Alex is more keen to be alive than others his age. The reasons for this are to be found in his childhood in Portugal in the early 70s, whose shadows he long found hard to escape from. At the age of 22, he recalls the events of the days once more: from his father's drafting to take part in a colonial war in Mozambique, via the time spent waiting in uncertainty by the side of his mother, to the disaster that the long-awaited return of the involuntary fighter brings to the family. The true misfortune only begins when the father is back at home, but no longer the same person.
With her debut, Teresa Villaverde has managed to create a small work of art: while Elfe Mikesch's subtle camera follows the selective but crystal clear gaze of the boy, who comments off-screen on the images from his past, the young director uses the most beautiful colours of memory to emphatically show the decline of a family, which suffers just as much under the oppressive mood at home as it did during the distant war. For a long time, the subject was a taboo in Portugal, and Villaverde approaches the difficult past of her home country unpretentiously, with tact and understanding.
