SYNOPSIS How would it look like, the body of Dom Afonso
Henriques, first king of Portugal, tutelary figure, subject to
successive mythifications throughout Portuguese history?
When the legend becomes fact, print the legend.
DIRECTOR’S STATEMENT The fascination with Portugal's first
king, D. Afonso Henriques is centuries old; the ancient monarch
was frequently invoked by his successors. At the height of the
"Portuguese Discoveries" expansion and thinking the original
grave too modest, King Manuel I relocated the remains of his
predecessor to a new, more splendid tomb; chronicles of the time
mention the body of a giant, "whole, uncorrupted, (...) ten hands
long, and two and a half wide at the chest (2 meters or 6' by 50 cm
or 1,5', approximately)1.
magnificence. These and other allusions, many lacking credibility,
created a fog of mystery and mysticism surrounding King Afonso's
persona.
Alongside D. Afonso Henriques and no less notorious, the true
dimensions of his sword are equally steeped in myth. Allegedly
in Santa Cruz de Coimbra (likewise his shield, famed for falling
to the ground whenever a monarch died), chronicles state that
King Sebastião took the sword to Africa on his deadly venture into
Alcácer-Quibir2. According to medieval rituals, it was no coincidence that the sword was as important
as the crown itself: the first Iberian
kings gained sovereignty through
the reconquering war effort. Taking
pride of place in the attribution of
knighthood, the symbol of the sword
is invariably imposed on the king3 and
is ubiquitous in the iconography of
D. Afonso Henriques, a symbol “that
attributes unparalleled authority and
sets him apart from all other men”4.
Similar to the king's imposing stature,
a vast and extraordinarily heavy
sword was imagined; a sword that
only a super-human being, almost a
super-hero, could wield.
The most recent attempt to open the
tomb of D. Afonso Henriques was in the present century, but was
thwarted by a last minute “impediment from the top”. What is
really inside the tomb remains a mystery.
Cinema is the ideal means to try to find a body for the nation's
founding myth, the body of D. Afonso Henriques; revealing
perhaps what science is incapable of unveiling, and unravelling
what history cannot solve.
WORLD SALES
Three hundred years later, King Miguel, in full fratricidal battle
with his brother King Pedro, Emperor of Brazil, and seeking
“supreme” legitimacy, decides to open the tomb at the Church of
Santa Cruz de Coimbra; the image of the great man persists, and
the towering stature of the founder of a nation gains strength.
In the hectic 1930s and riding the nationalistic wave of the late
nineteenth century (which, paradoxically, led to the fall of the
dynastic regime started by King Afonso Henriques), António
de Oliveira Salazar emerges depicted as the “defender of
Portugal”, masquerading as a medieval king, mimicking the
popular D. Afonso Henrique's sculpture, located in Guimarães,
the birthplace of Portugal; perhaps attempting to adorn his sad
physicality – an austere Coimbra professor with a hooked nose
and crooked posture – with the first Portuguese king's legendary
Sallete Ramalho
AGÊNCIA
Portuguese Short Film Agency
The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance (John Ford, 1962)
1
According to a testimony by João Homem, knight of the house of King Manuel, in MATTOSO, José - D.
Afonso Henriques. Lisbon, Temas e Debates, 2007. | 2Apparently the sword was left aboard the royal ship,
often deemed a contributing factor to ill fate of the mission (in Rodrigues, Ana Maria S.A. - Em busca de D.
Afonso Henriques através de oito séculos de Historiografia Portuguesa, in Actas do 2º Congresso histórico
de Guimarães, Volume 3. D. Afonso Henriques na História e na arte. Guimarães: Câmara Municipal de
Guimarães e Universidade do Minho, 2000). | 3in MATTOSO, José – Fragmentos de uma composição
medieval. Lisbon: Estampa, 1987. | 4in MATTOSO, José – Fragmentos de uma composição medieval. Lisbon:
Estampa, 1987.
Auditório Municipal, Pr República. 4480-715 Vila do Conde - Portugal
tel: +351 252 646 683 | fax: +351 252 638 027
[email protected] | www.curtas.pt/agencia
FUNDAÇÃO CIDADE DE GUIMARÃES AND BLACKMARIA PRESENT O CORPO DE AFONSO/THE KING'S BODY A FILM BY JOÃO PEDRO RODRIGUES
VOICE, SCREENPLAY AND CINEMATOGRAPHY JOÃO PEDRO RODRIGUES EDITING MARIANA GAIVÃO SOUND CARLOS CONCEIÇÃO NUNO CARVALHO
SOUND MIX NUNO CARVALHO ASSISTANT DIRECTORS DIOGO COSTA AMARANTE JOÃO RUI GUERRA DA MATA PRODUCTION MANAGER RODRIGO CANDEIAS LYDIE BÁRBARA
PRODUCERS JOÃO FIGUEIRAS AND FUNDAÇÃO CIDADE DE GUIMARÃES CINEMA E AUDIOVISUAL DIRECTED BY JOÃO PEDRO RODRIGUES Portugal 2013 - 32 min / HD / 1.77 / color / 5.1
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