Sefarad

Sefarad (2019) is a Portuguese movie directed by Luis Ismael. It stars Rodrigo Santos as Portuguese Army Captain Barros Basto.

The movie is set in the early 20th Century, with flashbacks to the 15th Century. Portuguese Jews were expelled in 1496. They had three choices: Die, leave, or convert. Many Jews did, indeed, convert. However, within that group, some stayed Jewish but hid it. In fact, the Portuguese Inquisition--like the Spanish Inquisition--spent considerable effort (and torture) on finding these "Pseudo-Christians."

Nonetheless, some Jews found a way to survive and keep their hidden Jewish identity intact. Over 400 years later, a few Jews were back in Portugal. One man, Captain Barros Bastos, went into the countryside, found these hidden Jews, and tried to bring them back into mainstream Judaism. It was an uphill struggle, and it's that struggle that makes up the plot of the movie.

This film was interesting and worth watching. It has too few IMDb ratings to tell what other viewers thought of it. I thought it was excellent, and rated it 8.