Palavra E Utopia

Palavra e Utopia is not a historical film or a documentary, but a story, told by Manoel de Oliviera, about the 17th century Jesuit priest António Vieira, Portugal’s most famous religious preacher. The film is shot in Brazil, in Portugal and in Rome; all places that were visited by Father António Vieira (played by Ricardo Trêpa in his youth, Luís Miguel Cintra in his adulthood, and Lima Duarte in his late years). A visionary, critical man, not always understood by his Church, he was King João IV’s friend and confidant, he resisted the Inquisition and he preached for the liberation of the Indians, the slaves and the black, during the Portuguese colonization. He was a man with a gift for words who fought for a utopia: the myth of the Fifth Empire. In 1663, the famous preacher was summoned to Coimbra, to face the Court of the Inquisition, at which point he recalls his youth in Brazil…