‘This war turns us all into insects struggling for survival’ writes young military doctor António to his pregnant wife in Portugal in 1971. He has been posted to Angola to serve in the Portuguese Colonial War. His words are full of pain but also tenderness, filled with a deep longing for his beloved wife and their unborn child. At the same time, António’s regular letters provide a picture of his daily life in these foreign parts, including his discovery of the fascinating nature, his encounters with the local people and how he takes care of a young orphaned girl. But, increasingly, war rears its ugly head, and his letters home also become spiritual missives from a doomed world.
Based on letters written by António Lobo Antunes and published in 2005 as ‘This life here described on this piece of paper’, Ivo M. Ferreira has created a parable in which reality and imagination merge. In shimmering black-and-white images, a mixture of journal, war report and declaration of love, the director creates a poetical essay in which the images and the doctor’s chronicle are held in a striking tension.