Filmmaker Unearths Hidden Truths in Fascist Archives

Portuguese filmmaker Susana de Sousa Dias is interrogating her country's fascist past through a unique use of archival materials. Inspired by Italian neorealism, she focuses on the period of dictatorship in Portugal, specifically the methods employed by António de Oliveira Salazar's regime. De Sousa Dias's films explore the extensive archives of the political police, seeking to uncover the hidden realities behind official records.

Her process involves re-examining propaganda films and photographs, juxtaposing them with testimonies from former prisoners. De Sousa Dias revealed that the official archives omit details of torture, compelling her to "fill some of these gaps" through her cinematic work. She meticulously edits images, finding "something in the image that had escaped the message that the regime wanted to convey."

The composer António de Sousa Dias's music played a crucial role, organizing the film's structure like an exhibition. Despite facing difficulties accessing archives, de Sousa Dias employed creative methods, likening her persistence to Werner Herzog's "good criminal energy." Her approach transforms images into active entities, revealing the suppressed histories of a nation.