Veredas (1977) AKA Trails

Portugal's Carnation Revolution (which celebrated its fortieth anniversary this past April) led to an explosion of creativity in Portuguese cinema. Cinephiles are certainly familiar with the works of Manoel de Oliveira, but perhaps less so with those of Joao Cesar Monteiro, who helmed some of the defining films of his era. Trails, his first feature fictional film, is a sumptuous and visually resplendent piece of cinema. There is no central plot per se, though there are several vignettes, the most important of which follow the adventures of young couples struggling to survive in a harsh landscape. Much of the first third of the film is purposefully theatrical and moves at a glacial pace, but Monteiro is not trying to alienate his audience, rather he is just trying to acclimate them to the unique world this film takes place in. Drawing from Portuguese folktales, and larger mythologies in general, Trails can be seen as a kind of universal history of humanity. What is most impressive about this film is how meticulously crafted its universe is. We are not just watching a movie, we become a part of it. Monteiro's style of storytelling feels almost antiquated, it comes from a place long before the advent of cinema, mainly, but not exclusively from the oral tradition. If films were made in the Portugal of yesteryear, they would probably be a lot like this one. Even when the narrative reaches the present, it retains a feeling of displacement, and time out of space. However, I could not shake the feeling that some of this was practice on Monteiro's part in preparation for his masterpiece Silvestre, which very much the same in style and themes, but is a much tighter and well-constructed work. Trails, at times, lives up to its name and meanders off in random directions, some interesting, some not. While its parts may be more engaging than the full product, there is no denying that this a film really unlike any other, and stirs deep emotions in the viewer.