What if you could put history on trial — but the jury is your trauma?
In 1970, a man is tortured and murdered by the regime's secret police. Now nearly 40 years later, his friend, who had also been tortured, recognizes the man he deems responsible for the murder of his friend. Along with three old friends and the victim's daughter, they kidnap the man and take him to an isolated house. Once there, the concepts of justice and revenge begin to mix dangerously in a private trial with irreversible consequences.
Acting
José Eduardo's trembling resolve as a man consumed by forty years of silence.
Direction
Vieira traps you in that house — no escape from the questions being asked.
Director
Leonel Vieira
Júlio César
Jaime Ferreira
Alexandra Lencastre
Joana
Fernanda Serrano
Catarina
José Eduardo
Miguel
Carlos Santos
Mendes Oliveira
Henrique Viana
Henrique
André Gago
Mendes Oliveira in 1970
Carla Chambel
Mariana
Joaquim Nicolau
Marcelino
Bárbara Norton de Matos
nurse Teresa
Almeno Gonçalves
Procurador
Marta Leite de Castro
Antónia
Maria José Paschoal
Ana
Raquel Henriques
Maria
Peter Michael
Henrique in 1970
Trivia, insights & behind the scenes
Made during Portugal's ongoing reckoning with Salazar's Estado Novo regime, the film mirrors real debates about PIDE agents who escaped prosecution.
The 4.6 TMDB rating reflects how poorly this sells abroad — it's essentially untranslatable without grasping Portugal's specific silence around its dictatorship.
PT
