DOKU.ARTS
Zeughauskino Berlin
06.–23.10.2016

A Toca do Lobo

Though Portugal’s Salazar regime came to an end in 1974, the impact of a dictatorship can be felt by generations afterward. Now, decades later, after the archives have been finally opened to the public, the re-appropriation of family histories lies in the hands of the grandchildren’s generation.
The essay film by Portuguese filmmaker Catarina Mourão tells the story of such a re-appropriation. Mourão ventures out in search of the fate of her grandfather, the writer Tomáz de Figueiredo. It is, to begin with, the story of an absence: even before he is committed to a psychiatric clinic in the mid-1950’s, Figueiredo lives far from his family. By means of archival material, conversations, photographs, and places, Mourão attempts to shed light on the story of her grandfather. His most famous book, A toca do lobo (The Wolf’s Lair), lends the film both its title and a conflict: the torch used to illuminate the Wolf’s Lair invariably lightens just a part of the den; what lies in close proximity often will be plunged into darkness. Every illumination is a selection, distortion, and interpretation; the filmmaker's frequent use of the colour black is hence honest.
Mourão shows that truth cannot be found in documents and memories. What can instead be found is a relation to the truth. At the end of this sensitive and poetic film, in a delightful twist, the filmmaker succeeds in playfully creating just such a relation.

(ab)