Over a sleepless night in 1978, Francisco and Rita meet up to remember João, a recently murdered childhood friend. João had belonged to a subversive leftist group during the dictatorship, and was a film producer who had been filming an adaptation of Alexandre Herculano’s drama The Jester.

José Álvaro Morais theatrically transforms Alexandre Herculano’s 1843 novel before our eyes in his Golden Leopard-winning first feature. Set in the abandoned Lisboa Filmes film studio, The Jester imaginatively ruminates on national identity, engaging with entire centuries of Portuguese history.