Luísa Marinho

José Bação Leal has born in Lisbon, capital of Portugal, in 1942, and died in Mozambique, during the colonial war, with 23 years old. A promising writer and thinker, he became a symbol of a youth that could not rise, victim of a country that put in cause its own future in a meaningless war. All the people who were close to him were touch by his fascinating personality and his vanguardist free spirit.

In 1972, Maria Isabel Barreno, Maria Teresa Horta and Maria Velho da Costa published the book As Novas Cartas Portuguesas [New Portuguese Letters], addressing topics forbidden and censored during the Estado Novo regime such as the colonial war, adultery, rape and abortion. The book was immediately banned and the writers were prosecuted for crimes against morality. The legal proceedings caused waves of protest around the world, giving rise to an international network of solidarity. In the film, the “three Marias” tell their story, before and after one the first major feminist struggles in Portugal.