Capitães de Abril (2000)

Director:

Maria de Medeiros

Writers:

Ève Deboise (writer)
Maria de Medeiros (writer)

Release Date:

21 April 2000 (Portugal)

Genre:

Drama | History | War

Tagline:

Há momentos em que a única solução é desobedecer.

Plot:

Story of the 1974 coup that overthrew the right-wing Portuguese dictatorship--which continued the fascist policies of long-time dictator Antonio Salazar--and of two young army captains who were involved in it. |

Plot Keywords:

Captain | Portuguese | Colonialism | Interrogation | Africa

Awards:

4 wins & 2 nominations

Cast

  (Cast overview, first billed only)

Stefano Accorsi	...	Maia
Maria de Medeiros	...	Antónia
Joaquim de Almeida	...	Gervásio
Frédéric Pierrot	...	Manuel
Fele Martínez	...	Lobão
Manuel João Vieira	...	Fonseca
Marcantonio Del Carlo	...	Silva
Emmanuel Salinger	...	Botelho
Rita Durão	...	Rosa
Manuel Manquiña	...	Gabriel
Duarte Guimarães	...	Daniel
Manuel Lobão	...	Fernandes
Luís Miguel Cintra	...	Pais
Joaquim Leitão	...	Filipe
Canto e Castro	...	Salieri

Also Known As:

April Captains (USA)
Capitaines d'avril (France)
Capitanes de abril (Spain)
Capitani d'aprile (Italy)
Captains of April (International: English title)
Capitanes de abril (Argentina) (festival title) [es]
I epanastasi ton garyfallon (Greece) [el]
Kapitanowie kwietnia (Poland) (TV title) [pl]
Nelken für die Freiheit (Germany) (TV title) [de]
Nisan devrimi (Turkey: Turkish title) [tr]

Runtime:

123 min | Argentina:125 min (Mar del Plata Film Festival)

Country:

Spain | Italy | France | Portugal

Language:

Portuguese

Color:

Color

Sound Mix:

DTS | Dolby Digital

Certification:

Argentina:13 | France:U | Netherlands:12 | Portugal:M/12 | Spain:T

Filming Locations:

Escola Prática de Infantaria, Santarém, Portugal

Company:

Alia Film

Trivia:

Captain Salgueiro Maia, portrayed in the film, was born in 1944 and died of cancer in 1992. He was one of the Portuguese heroes of the revolution. It was he who forced the goverment to resign and it was in great part due his intelligence and common sense that it was possible to have a "bloodless revolution" that ended 48 years of dictatorship. He wasn't promoted (nor did he ever seek any kind of promotions or fame or power) and was for some time forgotten. Eventually he was honored with two streets in Santarém and Castelo de Vide (where he was born and where he is buried) that now bear his name. Also in Santarém stands a statue of Captain Salgueiro. In Lisbon, in Largo do Carmo, where he stood with a megaphone and his troops and hundreds of civilians crying "Victory," forcing the govement to resign, there is a inscription to him written on the ground. It says: "To Salgueiro Maia, remembering the 25th of April 1974. Homage made by the city of Lisbon, 1992."

Goofs:

Factual errors: The officer of the day at Escola Prática de Cavalaria, Liutenent Lobão, doesn't wear the red band at his left arm that all all officers of the day must wear to identify them as such.

Piece of history

Principally it is the story of two men who were part of the Portuguese revolution. It was easy to understand the contest, but usually directors starts from a historical fact to speak about something else, or they shows also the period before or after this fact, here everything happen during that couple of days when the revolution acts. It could also be seen as a kind of documentary. The movie focalize to these two people, showing as normal they were, not like common heroes, because the revolution come from people. Although it was made from military army from the title you can understand that they were just "capitaes" as the main characters. Nice colors and lights during the whole movie, excellent work for the director being her first movie, she doesn't fall to the banal way. Well shown emotions and passion of people and crowd. The character of Maia (main one)is well-made and there is also a good interpretation for Stefano Accorsi, able to show Maia's limits, this not-being an hero.