Capitães de Abril (April Captains)

Portugal/France/Italy/Spain 2000, 123 min, English subtitles

The directorial debut of the actress/singer Maria de Medeiros opens with shocking images of victims of the colonial war, thus showing one of the driving motives for the toppling of Portugal’s 41-year lasting dictatorship by the “Armed Forces Movement”. The characters in the film are based on actual protagonists of the Carnation Revolution in 1974: the leftist teacher who takes a stand for a student; the soldiers who are no longer capable of reconciling the war with their conscience, storm the radio station and broadcast the song “Grândola” to signal the coup; and the civilians who enthusiastically greet them carnations in hand.