Mockumentaries are not an easy art. First, they need to look realistic. Second, we need to feel the format is relevant for that story. Third, they should have something to say.
This film passes the test in all these items. The image, the ratio, the ads, the clothes, they immediately put you in the right period and place, but there's also the "making-of" component that feels real, feels like real people interacting with each other behind the cameras, with nothing to moderating them except common sense.
Of course that this (not-so) short film makes total sense to exist in this format. This is also about being a producer, a showman, an entertainer, a writer and a lot of this art can only be seen when...people are not looking. Because not everything is a tv show. Thematically, this piece is much more important than it seems. Yes, of course it's an homage to a specific time and a specific region. But this is not only also about filmmaking, conflicts and the different roles in television, but mostly about people, dreams and time. Different generations colliding with different views, different paces, different worlds to explore - some feeling they won't be able to live all the dreams they dreamt and demanding, at least, some more respect from a world that never stops to even acknowledges; others thinking their time is now and not in the future.
In the end, The Last Days of Emanuel Raposo is just about people and the cruel running time that we all have to face.
