Gebo and the Shadow

This adaptation of Raul Brandão’s play from 1923 is about the poor patriarch Gebo who lives with his wife and daughter-in-law. Gebo is advanced in years, but has to carry on working as an accountant in order to maintain his family. The three talk a lot about the fate of the son, João. He ended up in the gutter; that much is known to both Gebo and his daughter-in-law Sofia, but they keep it secret from mother Doroteia, in order to avoid disrupting her ideal picture of her son. That turns out to have major consequences when João returns and moves in with his parents.
Portuguese master Manoel de Oliveira, the world’s oldest active filmmaker, once again persuaded great names to take part in his idiosyncratic production, among them Jeanne Moreau, Michael Lonsdale and Claudia Cardinale. With its static camera, use of symbolism and theatrical styling, Gebo and the Shadow is a vintage De Oliveira.

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