Directed by António Reis
While working at Lisbon’s famed Miguel Bombarda sanatorium, psychologist Margarida Cordeiro discovered a series of arresting drawings by a recently deceased former patient and paranoid schizophrenic named Jaime Fernandes. Keeping a respectful yet never tentative distance from the asylum world as a realm of unfathomable mystery, Reis and Cordeiro linger over Fernandes’ drawings, assembling a profoundly moving portrait of a gifted artist and powerful emblem of Portugal’s virtual imprisonment during the repressive Salazar regime.
Cinematographer: Acácio de Almeida. Editor: António Reis, Margarida Cordeiro.
35mm, color, in Portuguese with English subtitles, 35 min.
