GEBO AND THE SHADOW
based on the play by
Adapted and directed by
It wasn't me!
It wasn't me!
Poor old man, he'll be freezing.
It's been raining all day.
A lifetime of bad weather.
It's difficult to see anything out there.
Mother, could you give us
a bit more light?
Ah! His old rug and slippers!
Or he'll complain...
It's been so many years!
- Father's late. Could he have taken ill?
- He'll be chatting with the neighbours.
- Is everything ready?
- Yes.
Call me when he arrives!
He'll have news today.
News from who?
From Joo, your husband, my son.
You're always the same!
Don't forget the old rug
and the shoes...
On the chair. I've got them,
didn't you see?
Everything's ready.
Except the books.
He doesn't like us touching them.
Good.
It's already so dark!
Always this illusion!
We can't even weep...
so that she can keep her illusion.
She gets on with life, forgets, while
we spend hours mulling, fretting...
That's his voice, his footsteps.
He's coughing.
He's talking to someone.
Mother, he's here!
I'm coming!
I'm coming!
Who's he talking to?
Father's coming!
He's knocking.
I'm coming!
I'm coming!
How he talks!
I'm coming...
- Come in. No need to knock.
- "Ladies..."
I didn't know, Doroteia.
Won't you come in, Chamigo?
Not now, Gebo. The orchestra
is giving me a lot of work.
Nothing but the bass drum!
How the bass drum annoys me...
No one cares about art any more!
Goodbye.
Goodbye.
See you later, or tomorrow.
Come early so we can talk.
- I'm chilled to the bone!
- I know, I know...
I could feel you coming...
Sit here behind the kitchen door.
You'll be warmer there.
It's been so cold this year!
The last time I remember
a year like this was...
- Take off your boots. Here are your
slippers... - Thank you!
So did you see him?
Did you see him?
See him?
Who?
The fellow who writes to our son!
Did you speak to him?
Didn't you say that you'd bring
news of our son today?
I saw him, yes!
You bring this up out of the blue!
You don't give me time to think.
Of course I saw him.
He sends his regards.
- Is he well?
- He's fine!
You used to talk such a lot,
too much, even.
Now it's like getting
blood out of a stone.
I'll go and see if the coffee's ready.
Then I want all the details.
Don't upset yourself, father.
It's my fault. I'm so forgetful...
You should have reminded me.
Poor thing... If she knew!
If she had any idea!
Do you have any news?
Yes, I do.
News, yes...
- I think I saw him.
- You saw Joo?
I saw a shadow in the night.
If she hears of it!
She's already suffered enough.
Lie, Gebo, deceive her.
Lie today, tomorrow, always,
spend your whole life lying, Just
don't let her suspect. Not ever!
Let her live her last days happy...
Yes, happy...
And you...
We left everything behind,
went far away,
moved to another part of the country
so she wouldn't find out...
Always telling her... always...
Yes. Always lying to her.
If you knew how hard that's been!
Worse than writing a serial
every evening.
I don't even know what to say
any more.
Stick it out, old man, stick it out...
so she doesn't ever find out.
So you saw him?
If he ever comes round here, father...
Round here? No.
If ever...
No, it can't have been him.
Just a shadow
that vanished into the night...
It's been eight years...
The wretch!
Forget him, lass.
A terrible life.
A different life...
A quite different life...
Yes, a wretched life...
Say it, father... say it...
He won't come. Don't worry.
I'd already seen him...
Did you speak to him?
It was over a year ago,
in a street far from here...
It was evening and...
I felt myself
being pulled into a dark corner...
Was it him?
He didn't speak.
I could only see his eyes.
But I recognised him right away.
Perhaps it was the hands.
They were frozen...
I recognised him right away
I gave him all the money I had on me
We didn't say anything to each other.
But I understood
even without speaking...
He's been gone many years.
But recently I sense I'm being followed
like being engulfed by a shadow...
A shadow?
A shadow, father?
It can't have been him...
But it was him, it was!
Oh, if she ever finds out that
the son she raised...
Father, tell me everything...
No. We have plenty
of time to talk.
I'd rather enter these accounts
in my book...
This is a great business,
Ramires 8. Ramires!
Just look at the balance for August,
ten contos and seven hundred and fifty
thousand reis. Not bad, huh?
Twenty thousand reis a month
and I still have to work at night
so we don't starve to death.
What do you say to that?
Nothing. I'm just thinking.
Brooding about our misfortune.
About that other life he leads...
Why does he lead such a wretched life,
such pain and hunger?
- There's so much I'd like to know.
- Come on.
The light is good today.
Was it you that did the lamp?
It was me!
Here's your coffee.
We depend on your eyes.
Would you go and look
at the stove?
Here I am, every day,
waiting to hear you..
I've got a lot to do this evening.
Don't get irritable.
Age tans the hide.
Let me cover your feet.
You can tell me everything
over coffee. Don't write.
So, you went into his house, that
fellow that writes to our son...
I did.
- And he read you the letter from our son?
- He did.
What did it say?
It said... it said...
He sends greetings.
As usual...
And he asked after his mother.
He did?
Why didn't you say right away?
You know I live for that...
I love to hear you so much! Go on, talk.
And next?
Next?
Goodness!
Next... Well, we talked about this
and that, etc, etc.
Etc?
You treat me so harshly!
Here I am waiting every day
just to hear you.
For years that's all I've had...
And then you come home and
don't say a word to make me suffer.
Doroteia!
What do you want me to say?
I don't know what else to invent...
I don't know... I can't...
In the business world, we don't
usually discuss family matters.
You always say the same,
half a dozen words.
And God knows, I have no
joy whatsoever in my life.
We live in this terrible poverty,
which gets more unbearable
by the year.
But I don't have
anything to say...
What there is I know very well!
Perhaps you don't even
know yourself...
And you've not noticed that gradually
I've changed into someone else...
someone full of pain and despair.
I've become another person,
without you even noticing,
in the silence of someone
that can't take any more.
Speak!
Speak!
For years I've been waiting for you
to tell me what I want to know!
Oh, Doroteia, know what?
What do you want to know?
Always misery, misfortune!
And me here waiting...
Leave me alone...
Could you get me some more coffee?
Yes, of course.
If you don't speak, I'll die.
If I didn't know you were my friend,
I would doubt you.
You know this is the only happiness
I have... you are taking it from me!
Don't torment me, listen...
You and Sophia, nothing affects you!
But me! Oh, how I've wept!
Poor thing! She's suffered a lot too,
we have to spare her.
Just like me.
She's his wife and
she hasn't seen him again.
Think what that must be like,
suffering in silence never complaining.
Have you ever
heard her complain?
What about me? All I've
been through! Eight years!
For what it's worth, I've
swallowed so many tears.
And when I want to talk
about our son, you go dumb.
You plunge into your books
so she won't go without.
It's as if she were
our daughter...
What wouldn't we give
to see them both happy?
We gave them everything.
With life this hard, I've
often thought about dying!
- About what?
- Dying, yes!
We almost want to die.
It was you and her
that bound me to life.
Listen to you!
I like talking
about our daughter.
I remember when she arrived,
still little, after my brother died.
Then she grew up and
we married them...
But you never talk about our son,
you don't say a word about him.
You've always loved her
more than him.
Because he went away, didn't
want to put up with this life we lead,
because he's ambitious.
He takes that after me.
A double-edged sword...
You think it's better to be like you,
doing nothing to get on in life?
They laugh at you. You're pitiful.
Everyone despises you.
Your friends all got rich, while
you're a bill-collector for a company,
always the same salary
and the same problems.
In the office, everyone says:
"Poor Gebo"...
- And you take it!
- What else can I do?
"But Gebo is honest".
You never took the chance
to get rich when you could...
I always did my duty.
I did what I could.
I did everything for you.
Yes, I've done my part!
I'm an honest man.
Look at the others!
They got rich, they're happy...
Only God knows that!
While we, poor wretches...
Did you leave the stove on?
We need to make more coffee.
I'll make some more later
so we don't have to heat it up.
Very well.
I've got to work till late.
And it's bitterly cold.
My son...
What?
What?
I can't get him out of my mind.
Sometimes I feel like running away,
like leaving everything and
going out into the world.
And 7 makes 14... Going off
just like that? And 7 makes 21
So do I.
Life is always the same.
Like the rain falling outside
onto the eaves, drop by drop.
Always that
monotonous sound of the rain...
Life is always the same thing.
Our life, yes.
We wear the same old clothes,
darn them, wear them again.
- 'What if something happens to us?
- 'What kind of thing?
Good fortune in life is
when nothing happens.
So good fortune is routine?!
Perhaps. Good fortune is
always doing the same work,
saying the same words.
Like the rain.
Not thinking about it.
Not thinking about it!
I think all the time.
Even when I'm in my grave
I'll be thinking!
Is there just this one kind of life?
Just one?
All lives are like this.
My life is so monotonous,
so cold it's unbearable!
Sometimes,
I wonder if I'm alive or dead.
Not even my dreams
matter any more:
they're all spent.
And is there no other life but this?
For me, when I finish work,
and sit down here,
with my books at my side,
listening to the rain...
How it falls, this rain!...
...I'm not unhappy.
Quite the opposite. I feel fine
with you both near me...
We've been
doing the same thing
for the last forty years,
in poverty, humility.
And my dreams have all worn out,
spoilt by life...
Is there no other life for us?
We have lived our lives,
done our duty.
I don't know if we were put
into this world to be happy...
If this is all there was to life, the
same actions, the same words,
I would die.
I couldn't live.
All that saves me
is my dreams,
what remains of them.
Closed-in, alone,
the more alone the better,
I can dream of my son.
For you, your son
is less than a stranger.
God help me!
It's true! He changed towards me
the moment he married.
Doroteia!
That's enough!
I need to talk. I need
to get it off my chest!
As if that weren't enough, it was her
that turned you against him.
Mother!
Mother!
You're ungrateful, Doroteia. If only
you knew how ungrateful...
- What?
- Nothing!
I know! I know!
We took her in,
looked after her.
Without us she would have starved.
No one wanted anything to do with her.
And in exchange, she took our
son's affection away from us.
For God's sake,
shut up now!
But it doesn't matter.
I love him enough for both of you.
And the less you love him,
the more I do.
Ah! So you heard?
All the better.
I'm going to bed,
But I won't sleep.
I'll be thinking about him.
I spend my nights thinking.
Aren't you going
to say anything?
Aren't you going to say anything?
Don't cry, lass.
Don't cry.
Let her cry. I've also shed
a great many tears.
My son only has me.
Are you crying?
Serves you right.
It's the unhappiness
that has made her so bitter.
She's worn herself out thinking,
suffering.
'What's wrong with you?
'What's the matter?
Nothing, father.
I'm afraid!
So aml!
We're living under a shadow.
I can't take it. I'm afraid.
It's my son,
he's a miserable wretch!
Maybe the police are after him.
Maybe he has nowhere to sleep.
The day before yesterday, I thought
I saw him at the corner of the road.
I wondered if he had food...
If he was hungry!
If she hears of this,
she'll die.
Listen...
That's her.
She's in the bedroom...
talking to herself... mulling it over.
Now go to bed. I'm going to
stay up working till late.
- All right. Good night, father.
- Good night.
Poor thing...
So silent and so sad.
Always in this hole,
embroidering.
I know you so well.
You get worked up! So worked up!
But you never say a word.
Pray for me, do you hear? For all of us
and for him most of all.
For him, yes.
Don't forget.
Good night.
Come on, now Gebo...
you've got a bit of peace.
Peace?
As I remember, I only have that
when I'm asleep.
Only then can I forget!
There are people in this world
that are so happy!
Carry 2... 7... 15... 90...
Cast out the nines, zero.
No, that won't work.
So 1... 2... 3...
Carry 5... carry 5... carry 5...
Half past nine already!
Time passes...
So 1... 2... 3...
You!
Hello, father!
I hear footsteps in the courtyard.
It must be Chamigo.
It must be him.
He never misses his coffee.
Sometimes you can see in his eyes
that he's dying for coffee.
If I didn't give him any,
he'd cry.
He's not doing too well, the old man.
God knows how he gets by.
Sometimes it pains me.
Here he is.
- Would you allow an artist...?
- Please come in.
You're a little late.
Come in and sit down.
- Sit down.
- Madam...
Well, Mr Chamigo... what do think
about this cold weather?
It's bitter.
I'll get you a coffee.
And how's business going, Chamigo?
So-so.
Could be better.
But now the management has decided to
put on another play, a fairy tale..
Oh, yes...
Is it well staged?
You can imagine... with Torres.
Ah, Torres!
So 7 and 8 makes 15 and 6, 21...
Torres, yes...
And have you had big audiences?
The fairground tent
does us a disservice.
And the weather doesn't help...
Rain... And a shortage of money.
Everyone's complaining about
the same thing, my friend.
But why don't they put
the show on at night?
Too expensive...
The lighting alone...
- Guess how much the lighting costs?
- I've no idea.
For the oil alone, 820. Imagine!
You see. Torres can't.
Ah!... 8 and 8 makes 16, and 1...
May I?
What a surprise!
Today was the Sousas' day.
But the Sousas are away.
Their uncle's ill...
- So here am I!
- Very good!
Good evening, my dear!
Hello, Candidinha.
Sit down!
Coffee's almost ready.
Do you want a drop?
- Ah, yes! With pleasure.
- Ah! Here's the coffee...
Coffee gives me palpitations.
It'll take me to an early grave.
- The cups, Sofia?
- I've got no illusions.
Only yesterday I said to the Teles:
"My grave is dug...
My burial clothes are all laid out ready.
I don't want to put anyone out."
Ruthless, eh?
Yes, dear, that's a bit ruthless.
Here's your coffee.
It smells so good!
The smell is not bad for you...
Quite the reverse.
It's boiling!
- Do you mind if I drink it like this?
- Go on, drink up, drink up.
Give him a bit more coffee.
So your son's finally arrived?
Coffee always warms me up.
Sorry to be rude,
but before I devoted myself to the arts,
I was a soldier...
Goon... goon...
Who's the lucky fellow
that will receive that, eh?
It's got no owner yet.
And 7 makes 49...
Oh, Chamigo,
such manners!
Madam!
I don't believe it!
In my time, that token
would've been for me.
You wouldn't have got away...
Did you have a secret?
Don't laugh,
I was very successful.
Yes, I had a secret.
I played the flute!
That was how I seduced them!
Playing the flute!
That's right, my dear man. That was
how I won over my dead missus.
There's nothing that expresses love
better than music!
And you didn't whisper
sweet nothings to each other?
And at the end, I'd get up, and I'd say:
"Good night, Serafina".
Nothing more?
I didn't have to. She'd already
taken the bait...
Do you hear? How the rain beats
against the glass!
- There's thunder again...
- The sky was all black when I got here.
Hark how it rumbles!
So long as I'm warm...
But it reminds me...
Of what, my love?
The great flood.
Here's more coffee. Nice and hot,
with this cold weather.
So, my dear,
you're all pleased
now your son's here?
Yes, I am!
Give me some.
Your husband's brought
a lot of money, it seems!
I think so.
Another drop, father?
Yes, fill it up!
What a winter!
Is this how you spend your evenings?
Every night? Always?
We talk, we work...
Yes, we talk and we work.
Do you hear?
A lovely march.
I like it...
What I'd like is to have the time
to invent my own things.
But the rehearsals,
and days busy playing:
Put your little foot here
It's disheartening.
That's all the public wants.
No one has any taste any more.
We're heading towards the abyss.
Oh, art!
When I think about art...
When I think about art...
I suffocate. I've felt a great weight
on me since I came in here.
I start thinking about art
and I get sad.
Who doesn't feel that?
So I start playing all on my own,
any old thing...
In front of my window is a blank wall, a
massive blank wall with no openings in it.
I look at that blank wall
and I play...
and the darkness goes away...
Art is a great consolation.
To me, everyone looks deformed...
- Like different people...
- Different people?
Those with petty useless lives...
There's nothing like art.
I was born for it...
to live from my art.
I feel that, if they let me,
I would create, write...
Write what?
What, my dear friend?
Why, a march!
I'll just say this:
perhaps I'll write a march.
Bravo!
Would you have any biscuits,
by any chance?
I'm feeling a little weak. I think the
palpitations might be coming on.
I'll go and get them.
What a dark night! With all these
crimes you see in the papers...
You must have read about them...
I'm always afraid when I go home.
- And you're just down the road.
- Crimes, eh?
Yes,
Horrible crimes. Sends a
shiver down your spine.
Everyone commits crimes.
Now this!
At least in their thoughts...
Everything you say here is useless.
You don't know what life is!
- Life...
- Shut up!
Not everyone can
live the same life.
You have to be soulless
to commit a crime.
But there are some
that refuse to be trampled on...
Some are like sheep, others rebel...
They see the world in a different way.
Bravo!
Some, like my father,
were born to kiss
the hand that feeds them.
That's what I've always said!
- Others...
- Others?
It was for them that jails were made.
But there's a time before jail!
And in jail you also eat bread.
"Better dead
than be buried alive!"
Son!
Let me talk...
Everyone commits crimes.
Serious crimes are committed
every day,
crimes of lying, servility.
Serious crimes,
and sometimes there's nothing
stopping us from killing.
Shut up!
One night...
a night like this
I was wet through to the bone
and I was hungry.
It was after midnight.
I saw the street all deserted and I decided
that I wasn't going to die of hunger.
Hunger!
A moment of anguish and despair...
Blackness all around me...
Not just the blackness of the night and
of the huge wall next to me...
but bigger, thicker.
It was the blackness of my soul.
I felt there was no one in the world
more wretched than me.
I stuck close to the wall.
I was alone,
or at least I thought I was
that night...
Just me and despair,
just me and the blackness.
The first man that passed, I would
grab him round the neck with my hands...
I heard footsteps
at the end of the deserted street
and I hid in the darkness
ready to attack...
The figure approached.
Then I saw at my side
two huge disembodied hands,
in the lamplight.
And they suddenly clenched in the air,
squeezed, suffocating...
Then there was a thud
as a body fell...
I ran off into the night crying:
It wasn't me! It wasn't me!
How horrible!
How horrible!
Horrible?
That soul
that everyone despised,
that being
that was once a man,
and who had been brought to crime by others,
through their selfishness and indifference,
a man like other men
who was hungry and wanted to live...
A soul... Wasn't it you
that was just talking about a soul?
Something that knows no limits to its pain
and its dreams...
You've no idea what it is!
My Soul!
I don't know what my soul is.
It's very deep!
If I look carefully...
Have you thought about that?
You that live to repeat the
same things over and over again?
If I look carefully, I see in the depths
shadows that scare me...
the soul of a creature
that can't stand life,
this life
that you all put up with so well!
A soul that cries out and dreams
and can't stand this world of terror,
wretchedness and pain!
Don't you know there are
criminals with a soul
and men that don't have one?
You are all buried alive...
I'll tell you something else...
If each one of us committed the murders
we've dreamed about,
out of hatred, ambition
or for gain,
it'd be a bloodbath.
That's true!
Any one of us could commit a crime
tomorrow.
Yes, it's funny!
That's a funny thing...
Joo, shut up!
Shut up!
As you wish!
Are you intending to kill her?
Kill us?
Oh, you always make such a fuss!
I'm getting palpitations now.
Do you think he's been to jail?
He could have been,
judging by his demeanour.
What are you saying?
Did I miss something?
Nothing,
a joke. That's all.
Whew! It's hot.
Hot!
With this cold!
I wouldn't call it hot.
So-so.
So what's new?
In politics, it just gets worse.
We need a man with a firm hand.
Another Marquis of Pombal.
A biscuit?
No, thanks.
Well, then...
and carry...
Now I don't know how much it was!
A great shortage of money!
But this...
this is a lot of money.
Yes! Almost one come.
Seven thousand reis.
- At the end of the year, there's a lot
to collect. - There's no more coffee!
And it's heavy!
One come'.!
I've got no idea what it would be like
to have so much money.
A thousand reis is a lot.
So seven thousand reis!
Joo?
Are you coming?
Imagine everything
that's in here!
Silk dresses, sweets,
everything.
It must be marvellous
to have so much money.
It even gives off heat!
Able to order everyone about:
"Do this! Don't do that!
Get out! Get out of my sight!"
I wish I had someone
I could order about!
I wouldn't think twice.
To say that here inside...
I don't know! Everything!
It must be really nice
to have a lot of money!
Seven hundred reis
right under our noses!
Think what's inside!
So much money
right under our noses!
I'm used to it.
I don't even remember
that it's money!
Zero...
Do you hear?
Half past nine.
Already?
It's the clock on the tower.
Right, old friend. Time to go.
Goodbye. Thank you!
I'll go too.
The rain's cleared a bit.
Thanks!
So much money!
Careful with the step.
- Yes, thanks.
- Thanks!
Just down here.
Goodbye
Good night.
They've gone.
I'm feeling worn out tonight.
Are you going to bed?
Yes.
I'm going now.
Are you coming, Doroteia?
No, I'm going to stay here talking
to my son.
Son...
Yes?
There are some things
I'd like to ask you.
You should tell me everything.
I'm your mother.
Yes?
Wait.
Let me look at you.
If you knew how much I've suffered!
Don't get annoyed.
I wanted to ask you...
I have to say...
there's something
I don't know about you...
Just now. I was almost afraid.
It was difficult for me to find
your other face...
My other face?
The one you had
when you were little.
There's something
I want you to tell me.
Leave me alone... Leave me alone...
now leave me alone...
I need to be alone.
I've got used to solitude.
There are times when people
all seem monstrous,
different.
You can't understand.
You upset me!
It's also hard for me
to find my other face,
the one I always knew,
the one I've always dealt with.
Son!
But wait.
You love me...
So speak!
You're my dear mama after all.
Son, I can feel something...
I don't know what, but I can feel it.
You're miserable.
Yesterday I dreamt that I saw you
all ragged and thin
in a road with no end.
You were hungry and
you were looking at me.
I stretched out my arms
with a cry
but I couldn't hold you back.
You went off down that road
with no end
to a destiny full of pain.
Pain?
Despair.
You have to tell me
about your life...
My life...
Many times
I believed you dead,
many times I was cold
when I thought
you were cold.
Tell me everything...
In those wretched days you always
appeared to me as you did when I was small.
- And then...
- Then...
The night came again.
Talk. I don't get tired
listening to you.
We can stay here
the whole night talking...
- I never forgot you.
- I never forgot you either.
Even on the darkest days
I saw you and heard you.
Sometimes you spoke to me
as if from the bottom of a grave...
But it was me that was dead.
Poor wretch!
Poor wretch!
Maybe I know more
than you think.
- Maybe I guess...
- I'm not like other people!
I'm different.
Dominated by something
much stronger.
Maybe I don't even
command myself.
I am...
Go and sleep now.
Heading for misery?
Pitilessly.
I am he that causes suffering
and laughs.
Listen.
Maybe I know more
than you think.
- Talk to me!
- Later.
Go to bed.
I've waited years.
Now leave me alone.
Leave me alone.
They won't hear.
I understand if you don't tell them
anything, but I'm your mother...
Are you cold?
I've put my shawl
on your bed.
Good night.
I've got to tidy up the kitchen.
Do you want to come?
No, thanks.
All right.
I won't be long.
This drains my strength away.
I don't know why,
even the night upsets me...
I knew an old man, who
when night came,
would go to the bars
to breathe in deeply...
Deep down those that kill
are the ones with the biggest hearts...
'What's the matter?
- Almost ten... Aren't you going to bed?
- Let me breathe!
'What's the matter?
When night comes,
another life comes over me.
On some nights, the deepest ones,
I feel that I've become someone else.
If you could see me!
A being so different
from what you know!
A stranger whose name I don't know
who takes control of me and takes me
by force.
By force.
Shut up! And please,
could you close the window? I can't.
I surprise even myself.
A living being,
not a dead man...
When others cry,
I laugh.
Now we have found each other again.
Wretch...
Wretch!
Wretch,
she called me that too.
It's you
that are the wretches.
Do you really think this is living?
Spending your days here
always starting over
in the same way in this hole?
- And dying? Dying?
- And then dying.
You live like blind men. But there are
other things... other living beings.
To work like Gebo!
Be him!
I'd rather rebel
and then die.
Look how my hands are cold...
Let the night in.
Now go.
Shut up and go.
What are you doing?
I can't take it any more, Joo.
I'm going to scream!
Just as well.
What are doing?
You know I'm a thief,
you know
- Yes.
- A thief.
Do you want
to run away with me?
Shouldn't you be by my side
for better or for worse?
I'm your wife.
I'm alone in the world
but I know things you don't.
I know what hunger is,
what it is to kill and to die.
There are nights when I flee
like a hunted animal,
and there are times when I feel in myself
something else, something immense...
I can see people cry, see them scream...
Thief!
Being a thief!
You're our curse.
Are you going to kill them both? Is that
what you want? Old father and mother?
I have no father or mother,
I have no one.
What are you saying?
What are you doing?
- I'm stealing.
- Joo...
Joo!
Speak more quietly!
You'll lose yourself
and you'll lose us!
You'll be the end of the old man!
No! No! No!
Father! Father!
Come! Help!
Kill me!
You're not getting through!
Son! Stealing!
If she finds out...
What's going on?
What's that noise?
Nothing, it's nothing.
An argument between them.
So don't cry.
It's not worth it.
I give you my word of honour!
They're arguing... that's all.
These things happen...
Nothing more...
- And Sofia?
- She's gone after him.
Here he comes.
Finally...
No one has seen him,
no one.
This umbrella was so good!
How quickly things spoil!
It didn't used to be like this.
Don't worry about the umbrella.
Tell me if you found him?
I've told you,
no one's seen him.
I asked everyone.
You see this tear!
How can you go to work
with this weather?
I think the papers are
forecasting good weather...
- Has my director sent a message?
- No.
They'll be around soon
And then...
either he or I...
Who?
No one. I'm talking about
the weather. It's going to change.
We're going to have a very
dry winter, you'll see.
As for going to work...
It's been three days!
- What are we going to do?
- I don't know...
And the money, father?
The money?
Is she crying?
Yes...
She's crying.
She who kept saying
"When my son comes, you'll see!
Our misery will be over".
"It'll all be over", yes...
Her whole life living this illusion.
For me, I don't mind,
We can get used to anything. But her...
Is she crying?
Yes. But...
she's not the only one that suffers.
What will become of us all now?
She can't find out!
It's her last hope.
It looks like I'm wet...
On my face,
on my face too.
It must be from the rain.
Look, you've got me crying now!
Such a good umbrella!
Everything's so expensive,
and the money's gone...
Where's this all going to end?
That's what I wonder too...
But...
Maybe she knows everything...
No! If she knew everything,
she would have died.
"I wish to...
"inform you...
"that the money...
"collected...
"seven hundred
and fifty escudos...
"and seventy five reis...
"belonging to
the Auxiliary Company...
"Limited...
"was stolen...
"the night before last...
"in my house.
"The thief
is unknown".
"The thief
is unknown".
But they're so rich!
Wouldn't they forgive you?
Forgive?
When money's involved,
no one ever forgives.
I was forgetting the date!
- But father...
- Yes.
So our duty is to be poor
to be miserable our whole lives?
- It's better to confess everything.
- No!
Let's go and bang on the door
and shout: "Your son..."
No, no.
Never!
Speak quietly.
Inside, all I do is scream
and yet I speak softly
so she doesn't hear,
so no one hears.
The more I say
"Don't upset yourself"
she says "If you take him from me,
now that I've seen him... I'll die. "
It's my fault the house
was mortgaged and sold.
She's got lost
in a bitter useless dream...
If everything we do
is useless,
if we die deluded,
there'll be no future life!
But what do you want me
to do, lass?
I can't be anything else.
If you knew
how much I've suffered!
Who's going to give me work
after what's happened?
For a long time the Company
had me there out of pity...
Charity?
- Out of charity, father?
- Yes.
We've been silent,
for eight years!
You should shout out the truth.
That would be killing her
with my own hands.
I'd rather die
than tell her the truth.
My duty is something else.
Always duty...
Can you hear her?
Yes.
She's crying.
Just crying.
A man should be just
and honest above all else.
Or... should he want
to get rich?
So you have doubts too?
None of us knows himself.
I can't take any more!
Daughter!
I'm afraid of him!
I'm afraid of him!
I'd rather not
see him again!
If you had seen
what I saw!
If you'd heard!
But he's your husband.
In another life, which isn't
even his nor ours.
Another bigger life...
Maybe the truth!
In heaven?
In this world many people suffer,
and does anyone hear their cries?
Wait... Evil?
Evil is impossible!
Wait while I try to understand...
See!
If we could see!
In this horrible world
it's natural that
those that reach
a poor old age...
Old and poor...
Old and poor...
are trodden on
by those they most love.
No, father, no!
See...
Yes, see!
Yes, I want to see!
I want to see!
No! No!
No!
This hurts so much!
Run away...
could we run away?
Run where?
No one can escape misery.
We'd be better off dead!
I've always lied to her,
we've spent our whole lives like this,
me lying, her crying and dreaming.
Don't cry, daughter.
Don't cry...
- Go to her and tell her.
- No. I'll never leave you.
What's needed
on these occasions
is for each one
to know his duty.
That's the truth.
I hear it
but I don't understand it.
If we run away and abandon our
principles, we'll be in his hands.
Now I'm in the way,
that's all there is to it.
Maybe he'll repent
and remember his duty.
Go to your mother.
If it wasn't for duty,
I wouldn't even have raised you.
You were one more mouth to feed...
Can you hear her?
Yes.
She's still crying.
Just crying.
The most important thing is that
she doesn't find out anything. Ever!
My duty is something else.
Don't cry, please,
it's all sorted out.
Father!
Yes, it's all sorted out.
Don't cry any more,
do you hear me?
But how, father?
Now leave me.
Go and calm her.
Go and calm her.
How this hurts me.
How this hurts me.
It's them!
Don't open it!
Wife!
Daughter!
Wait!
Here they are!
Here they are!
No!
Father!
- It's him! It's him!
- It's the thief! It's the thief!
Yes,
I'm the thief.
It was me that stole it.