FLORBELA

FLORBELA (Portugal, 2012)

Director: Vicente Alves do Ó

Producer: Ukbar Filmes

With: Dalila Carmo, Albano Jerónimo, Ivo Canelas, Rita Loureiro

119 min

Portuguese, English and Hebrew subtitles

http://www.florbela.pt/

A tribute to Florbela Espanca (1894–1930), one of Portugal's most important poets of the 20th century. 

Synopsis: Portugal, the 1920s. With the country still shaken by the end of the Monarchy and stunned by the violent collapse of the First Republic, Florbela (Dalila Carmo) tries to find stability in her life and do what she’s best at: writing. She has just married for the third time but her newly wedded life in the province is not reconcilable with her restless soul. With the complicity of her brother Apelles (Ivo Canelas), a Naval Aviation officer, she runs for inspiration among the literary elite that simmers in Lisbon. In the midst of civil unrest, Florbela experiences foxtrot parties and lovers. Her husband tries to rescue her to a normal life but is unable to give a direction to someone who has “infinite thirst”, as she herself writes in one of her poems. The death of her beloved brother in a seaplane crash in the Tagus River, throws her into deep depression. Between reality and dream, poems arise as time stops. In Florbela’s feverish imagination and bizarre dreams only poetry seems to keep her sane.