The Baron

"I went by train to the nearest town, where later I took a coach that left me, at night, in a village whose name I do not remember. I was told there was a hostel down the street. It was an old house in ruins. I entered and went to the kitchen, a long, dark room at the bottom of which was a hearth. At its foot sat an old woman. I did not feel comfortable." And with good reason, as the school inspector is about to find out: for a sinister nobleman rules this fiefdom with terror. Will the school inspector's arrival trigger a similar chain reaction to Jonathan Harker’s at Count Dracula’s castle? O barão is based on two works by Branquinho da Fonseca, a writer so dear to Pêra that he needs to adapt a work of his every five years or so – the latest being Caminhos magnétykos; the most enigmatic Rio Turvo (2007). (International Film Festival Rotterdam)