Pessoal Beto em Sítios Chungas

Ayla Spaans traces the journey into motherhood in a visual poem capturing sisters on the cusp of change

Obscuro domínio is a filmed show that commemorates Eugénio de Andrade’s centenary. It is the realisation of his poetics in an open space and in the bodies of three performers and a pianist. It’s a hybrid object that fuses the language of theatre with that of television, and both of them with poetry, materialising themes that run throughout Eugénio de Andrade’s work, such as nature, desire, death and the craft of poetry itself.

Zé is forced to work from an early age as a fisherman, as so many others did before him, to support his sickly mother. When he leaves to the other side of the river to ask his sister for help, his resolve — even before settings that are indifferent to his misfortune — becomes clear in a poetic way, even if all that is left for him is to continue his journey.