The Portuguese grand master Manoel de Oliveira was at last year’s festival with Viagem ao principio do mundo, in which Marcello Mastroianni played his last role. Connoisseurs of De Oliveira’s wayward oeuvre will again enjoy the philosophical and emotional wealth of the latest film from the 89-year-old. Inquiétude is derived from three different sources: a strange play by Prista Monteiro entitled The Immortals, the story ‘Suzy’ by António Patricio and a story by Agustina Bessa-Luís, entitled ‘The Mother of a River’. De Oliveira says he has been planning to do something with these sources for some time andthis looked like a good opportunity to combine them. Only later did he give this triptych the title ‘Inquiétude’, as ‘worry’ formed a thread through all three stories.Father and son are both famous doctors, stoop under the burden of recognition and are old. The father sees his son (Luis Miguel Cintra) turn senile and drives him to suicide. At least he tries. After the curtain has fallen on this tragic farce, we find ourselves in Oporto in the thirties. The courtisan Suzy dies after an operation. Her philosophy of life was: ‘never mind’. Her lover is devastated. As solace, a friend tells him the story of Fisalin, a country girl who found out that her fingers were made of gold. For a thousand years she will be mother of a river…
