The Tyrannical Father

The staff of a Lisbon shop are putting on their annual amateur play, as they do every year. While rehearsals run, one of the clerks is trying to win back the attention of the woman he loves. The parts in the play and the situations in real life start to fold into each other; the tyrannical father being played on stage answers to reckonings in the room as well. Misunderstandings, jealousy and rehearsal mishaps stack up into the comedy. It is one of the best-loved films in Portuguese cinema and a fixture on television there for generations. The pairing of Vasco Santana and Francisco Ribeiro carries all the energy. Portugal was under the Estado Novo in the year it was made; the film stays outside politics and moves entirely through daily life and stage comedy. The play-within-a-play structure is put together with real skill for the period.