Ala-Arriba! focuses on maritime tragedy of the town and a forbidden love between Julha and João Moço, from different fisher castes, in a community where mixed-caste marriages were not allowed and dating without parent’s assent was seen as a disgrace to the family, not only in respect to women, but also men.
The film is a 1942 Portuguese romantic docufiction set in Póvoa de Varzim, a traditional Portuguese fishing town. Dealing with ethnographic matters, it may be considered as an ethnofiction. The film was directed by Leitão de Barros, and stars real fishermen as themselves in order to give a realistic view over traditions and social behaviours of the community. Focusing the cultural context, it continuously shifts from documentary to drama, by means of a fictional narrative. Contemporary to Robert Flaherty, Barros is with him one of the first filmmakers to explore docufiction and ethnofiction as forms of dramatic narrative. —Wikipedia
José Leitão de Barros (22 October 1896 – 29 June 1967) was a Portuguese film director and playwright.
Among his most famous films are Maria do Mar (1930), the second docufiction after Moana (1926) by Robert Flaherty, the first Portuguese sound film, A Severa (1931), Ala-Arriba! (1945), and a biopic about Portugal’s national poet, Camões (1946).
He was born and died in Lisbon. —Wikipedia
