The second and arguably most important film by Paulo Rocha (b. 1935) is a direct response to Manoel de Oliveira’s Rite of Spring (and, indirectly, to Agnes Varda’s La Pointe Courte) and an important precursor to the radical documentary-shaped fiction of Trás-os-Montes and, much later, the work of Pedro Costa and Miguel Gomes. Captivated by the remote Portuguese fishing village of Furadouro, Rocha chose not to make a traditional documentary but rather to engage the specificities of the people and place through fiction, crafting a melancholy story about a soldier’s return to a changing world. Inspired by his experience working with Oliveira on Rite of Spring and The Hunt (1964), Rocha “cast” the local villagers as themselves, interspersed with experienced actors led by the great Isabel Ruth, who would go onto become an Oliveira regular and an iconic presence in Pedro Costa’s Ossos (1997). The poetry of the local vernacular is captured in the textured dialogue written by António Reis, who met Rocha through Oliveira. Despite its controversial depiction of a disillusioned Angola War veteran, the film garnered a steadily building critical acclaim. Nevertheless, Rocha effectively ceased filmmaking until the 1980s.