A free adaptation of the novel Die Portugiesin, by Robert Musil. In the north of Italy, the von Ketten use their Germanic ancestry as it suits them in order to fight the forces of the bishop of Trent. Von Ketten looks for a wife in a distant country, Portugal, so that nothing will interfere with his field of action in the surrounding countries. During the long journey back home, the first child is born. But, when arriving to the castle, he’s told that the opportunity to defeat the Bishop has come. He decides to go to war! The Portuguese, against his will, refuses to go back to Portugal. Rumors are running about the presence of this ‘foreign’ he keeps in the castle… some say she’s a heretic. Eleven years elapse, von Ketten rarely goes back home. Until one day, the Bishop of Trent ends up dying and the multi-generation struggle ends with the signature of peace. For von Ketten, all that peace can bring is corruption, vanity and sickness… The Portuguese, who had dreamed of a land full of unexpected, sees a homeless, feverish, weakened man returning home. But, if The Portuguese knew how to wait for so long, she surely knows what to do now…
Rita Azevedo Gomes
