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A film by Carlos Saboga with Anna Mouglalis, Johan Leysen, Didier Sandre, Simão Cayatte

Her mother just died. Her father isn’t the one she thought.

Elisa ends up jammed between an uncertain past and an obstructed future. Her quest for her real father leads her to a phantasmal present. Bumping into speaking dead bodies, failing memories, retired torturers, will she ever know the truth?

2012 | France, Portugal | 85´ | Drama | Feature film

Festivals and awards

Rome International Film Festival 2012

Official Selection


Lisbon & Estoril Film Festival
Official Selction - Out of Competition

Cast and crew

Anna Mouglalis - Elisa

Simão Cayatte - David
Johan Leysen - Tom
Didier Sandre - Uriel
Marisa Paredes - Pilar
Rui Morrison - Fontana
Hélène Patarot - Maria
José Neto - Martim
Anabela Brígida - Odete
Ana Padrão - Inês


Direction and screenplay Carlos Saboga
Cinematography Mário Barroso
Production Designer Maria José Branco
Costumes Isabel Branco
Director Assistant José Maria Vaz da Silva
Production Manager Ana Pinhão Moura
Editing Paulo Mil Homens
Sound Ricardo Leal, António Lopes e Miguel Martins
Producer Paulo Branco
Production Company Alfama Films
In co-production with Leopardo Filmes
with the participation of Canal +
with the support of CNC Centre National du Cinéma et de l’Image Animée


International sales and festivals: Alfama Films


Intentions note

This story has been inside me for a long time.


When I started writing, I was inspired by a picture of two men that connected to a very strong political context - that of Portugal in the 1970s. It strongly echoed my personal life and interrogations about that era.
Then I grew attached to another kind of character : those who survive and those who live, carrying the dead inside them. That is why Elisa's story became central. Her resemblance to her mother creates a bridge between two eras, two countries, two "fathers" and two arts (photography and cinema).
This film is about dead people but also about the future, Elisa's future. It ends in a graveyard, but bathed in light, with the sea in the horizon.


The character rather than the plot.
The actor rather than the camera.
The body rather than the psychology.
The photo out of the past rather than the flash-back heading back there.
The voice as much as the face.
The off-screen as much as the set.
The hypothesis that the key in a movie, is what isn’t seen.


Carlos Saboga

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