Cinemania 2012: Gebo and the Shadow

Gebo and the Shadow

2012 / Colour / 91 min / France-Portugal

PRODUCTION TEAM

Director : Manuel de Olivera
Scriptwriter : Manuel de Olivera
Producers : Mact Production, O Som e a Furia
Cast : Michael Lonsdale, Cludia Cardinale, Jeanne Moreau, Ricardo Trepa, Leonor Silveira
Sales : Pyramid International 

The film is a superb adaptation of a 1923 stage play by the Portugease drama writer Raul Brandão - O Gebo et a Sombra. Manuel Olivera, the word’s oldest working film director, had succeeded at the age of 103 to produce a masterpiece by breathing a new life into this Portuguese theatre classic. The period setting of the film, the décor and costumes are masterly conceived and portrayed. And the cast of this film is superb.

The film examines the always pressing issues of evil and honesty. The inability and the refusal to be dishonest and to behave dishonorably in order to gain personal standing and money is portrayed by the main character Gebo and is contrasted to that of his son’s extreme greed for money which he believes can offer him a more exciting and valuable life. He attacks and scoffs his family and their two guests for their mundane and meager existence, and does not at all hesitate to commit a crime against all his family members, most directly against his father, in order to have a more ‘exciting’ life. He is possesses by a force which he proclaims to be greater than him. This force, he also explains it to be a very powerful being, comes over him especially at night and tells him, and forces him to do the crimes he commits.

The film also deals with love of a spouse and of family members. It portrays the desire to protect them, and the issuing family illusions that are installed. At the end, this also a heroic personal sacrifice… 

Here is the official trailer of the film, in French

One can also find complete versions of the film on YouTube.