Set in the Douro valley, Antonio Sequeira’s softly drawn portrait of a family in flux never quite ferments to anything more than a light tipple about the passing of time
This wistful Portuguese film is a pointillist portrait of a nuclear family over the course of an eventful year; it has plenty of earthy flavour, perhaps like the wine the paterfamilias of the story, Otávio (Miguel Frazão), produces on his small plot in hills above the Douro river. In oenological terms, you can really taste the terroir – the land on which it’s made – with notes of nostalgia and melancholy and a tangy, slightly humorous spice. But there’s also maybe a touch too much sweetness in the blend, given writer and director Antonio Sequeira’s script occasionally slips into a tannic, sentimental theatricality. If it weren’t for the fact that the stunning landscape plays such an integral...
This wistful Portuguese film is a pointillist portrait of a nuclear family over the course of an eventful year; it has plenty of earthy flavour, perhaps like the wine the paterfamilias of the story, Otávio (Miguel Frazão), produces on his small plot in hills above the Douro river. In oenological terms, you can really taste the terroir – the land on which it’s made – with notes of nostalgia and melancholy and a tangy, slightly humorous spice. But there’s also maybe a touch too much sweetness in the blend, given writer and director Antonio Sequeira’s script occasionally slips into a tannic, sentimental theatricality. If it weren’t for the fact that the stunning landscape plays such an integral...
- 5/27/2025
- by Leslie Felperin
- The Guardian - Film News
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