Night Train to Lisbon (2013) Movie Script
~ Night Train to Lisbon (2013) ~
That will make you think.
Based on the novel
"Night Train to Lisbon"
by Pascal Mercier
(Bern, Switzerland)
Stay there!
Thank you.
May I walk with you?
Fine.
- Good morning, ladies and gentlemen.
- Good morning, sir!
We have a visitor,
this morning.
Your coat...
Have a seat there.
I am afraid there is a
slight mishap on the way here...
I think the corrections
would still be legible.
Max, would you...
do the honors?
More work require there...
No opportunity
to honor and respect yourself.
But Marcus Aurelius was worth
philosopher and an emperor.
There's no coincidence,
that was the way with the Romans.
Thought and action were all one.
I think we were
chapter 12, page 42.
Natalie,
perhaps you da... begin?
"How can it be that the Gods...
overlooked this alone,
that some lost men...
and those very good men,
who have had the most... "
"into the course with the divine."
Uh, just keep on going.
"If it is so that we live
only a small part of the life
which is within us,"
" what happens to the rest?"
Hello, Mr. Gregorius.
I am afraid your book on
Persian grammar has yet to arrive.
Uh no, that's not why I came...
Do you know that book?
Indeed,
I sold it to someone yesterday.
A woman?
Yes. She came in, asked
for the Portuguese section
from this book.
Sat there.
Read it for an hour or so
then became rather upset.
Paid for the book and left...
How did you come by?
I found it.
Beautiful title.
"UM OURIVES DAS PALAVRAS"
"A Goldsmith of Words."
Train tickets.
- Where to?
- Lisbon, eventually.
Leaving in 15 minutes.
- Thank you.
- She was wearing that coat!
Attention please.
Line 10 on platform 8
is now leaving...
What is all this noise?
- Where is Mr. Gregorius?
- He left, Mr. Kagi.
He left?
There was a woman with him here.
Impossible.
"We live here and now."
"Everything before
and in other places is past."
"Mostly forgotten."
Hello.
Uh, this is Mr. Kagi.
Where are you?
- On a train.
- A train?
- Where to?
- Lisbon.
Would you take care of my books?
I left them on my desk.
"What could,
what should be done..."
"with all the time
that lies ahead of us,"
"open and unshaped,"
"feather-light in its freedom..."
"and lead-heavy in its uncertainty?"
"Is it a wish?"
"Dream like and nostalgic,"
"to stand once again
at that point in life..."
"and be able to take a
completely different direction..."
"to the one which has
made us who we are?"
Do you have a room?
- Where is your luggage?
- I don't have any.
I will trust you
and give you a room.
With a view of the sea.
There. The sea.
- Anything else, sir?
- Yes
I wanted to find the address
of the man who wrote this.
Thank you.
- Anything else?
- No, thank you.
Good morning,
I am looking for Amadeu de Prado.
One moment.
I believe you are
looking for my brother?
- Yes. Is the doctor in?
- Are you ill?
No, I'm...
I am reading this book.
I very much like to meet him.
What he writes
touches me very deeply.
You should come inside.
You may sit.
Some tea?
Red Assam is Amadeu's preference.
Thank you.
Tea, Clotilde.
This is Amadeu's favorite room.
It's beautiful room.
He has read everyone
of those books.
Does he still practice
as a doctor?
Where did you get it?
I came across it in Bern,
where I live.
Only a hundred were ever printed.
I have six copies left.
I often wonder where
the other 94 went.
Bern is in Switzerland,
is it not?
Yes.
And the book has traveled?...
That is a good thing.
- Has he written anything else?
- Nothing that has been published.
He wanted to be
a writer, a philosopher...
Then he decided
to become a doctor.
He didn't believe
people should be in pain.
- Is that him?
- That is our father
- He was a famous judge.
- So, I gather from the book.
He and Amadeu had a
rather complicated relationship.
"Consider from the standpoint of eternity
that rather loses its significance."
Yes.
- He often said that to Amadeu.
- Amadeu does not believe in eternity.
Unfortunately not.
I don't mean to pry, but...
may I ask
how your father died?
No. No, you may not.
If you want to see Amadeu...
you will find him
in Cemetery Prazeres.
"We leave something
of ourselves behind..."
"when we leave a place,..."
"we stay there,
even though we go away."
"And there are things in us..."
"that we can find again
only by going back there."
"We travel to our souls
when we go to a place..."
"that we have covered
a stretch of our life,..."
"no matter how brief
it may have been."
"But by travelling to ourselves,
we must confront our own loneliness.
"And isn't it so
that everything we do..."
"is done out of fear
of loneliness?"
"Isn't that why we renounce..."
"all the things we will regret
at the end of our life?
Excuse me. I am looking for
Amadeu de Almeida Prado.
- Prado.
- Thank you.
(In Portuguese)
"...When dictatorship is a fact,
revolution is a duty..."
Merda idiota! (Portuguese)
["Fucking idiot!"]
"Is it ultimately a
question of self-image,"
"the determining idea
one has made for oneself..."
"of what one has to have
accomplished and experienced..."
"so that one can approve of
the life one has lived?"
"If this is the case,"
"the fear of death
might be described..."
"as the fear of not being able to
become whom one planned to be."
"If the certainty befalls us
that it will..."
"never be achieved,
this wholeness,"
"we suddenly don't know
how to live the time..."
"that can no longer be
part of the whole life."
Better?
Or worse?
Better.
- You feel as if you wrote the book yourself?
- I would like to then.
Talks about everything
that preoccupying him for years.
Better? Or worse?
Worse.
Tell me one of these
beautiful sentences you read.
"The real director of life
is accident --"
"a director full of cruelty,"
"compassion and bewitching charm."
By accident, he means fate?
No, I think he means chance,
randomness chance.
Let's take a break,
rest your eyes for a moment.
You are a man
who does not sleep well.
- You can tell?
- The eyes reveal everything.
Look at these eyes.
Tell me what they reveal.
Melancholic, but hopeful.
Tire, but persistent.
Contradictory.
Why would his sister
pretend that he is still alive?
I have no idea.
Shall we resume?
So you met a woman in a red coat
who disappeared...
- ... and you just dropped everything?
- Then I read the book.
I would love to be able to do that,
just drop everything...
- You do that often?
- No, I never done anything like that before.
Best? Or worse?
Uh, better.
How does that feel?
You talk about seeing his feeling.
- Well, isn't it?
- I suppose it is.
- How clear is it? The image.
- Very clear.
And how about this?
Everything is in focus.
Sir, we have this
new one here...
"The decisive moment of life,"
"when its direction
changes forever,"
"are not always marked by
loud and shrill dramatics."
"In truth, the dramatic moments
of a life-determining experience..."
"are often unbelievable low-key."
"When it unfolds
its revolutionary effect..."
"and make sure that life that it revealed
in a brand-new light."
"It does that silently."
"And in this wonderful silence
resides its special nobility."
Now you wonder if
the old pair were better.
- Yes.
- But they are not, are they?
No, they feel very light.
Getting used to them
will take some time.
- You take credit cards?
- You can sort all that out with my receptionist.
Before you go...
I have an uncle.
He lives in a nursing home
across the Tejo (river Tagus).
I called him last night
and told him about you and the book.
He knew Amadeu de Prado well.
I told him you want to know about Amadeu
and he said he'll talk to you.
He was in the resistance.
I must warn you,
my uncle can be difficult.
In what way?
The generation that
lived under the dictator Salazar
is still battling to come to terms
with what happened.
When the resistance began,
the Secret Police were extremely brutal.
To this day,
people don't like talking about it,
The block of jail
as well as their victims.
Uncle Joo, how are you?
What you doing here?
This is the man I was telling you about,
Raimund Gregorius.
- I brought him.
- I said I talk to him, not you.
- But...
- You can wait in reception.
We go to the lounge.
So, you are interested
in Amadeu de Prado?
Yes.
Mariana tells me
you have a book of him?
Would you like to see it?
I can imagine what it is like.
A godless priest.
That's a good description.
He was the only visitor there
allowed in prison.
Every week he visits,
with books and medicines,
and cigarettes...
which of course, they take away
the moment he leaves.
Yeah, he had privileges.
- What sort of privileges?
- The kind you don't want in life.
- Do you have cigarette?
- No, sorry, I don't smoke.
Pity.
Mariana tells me that
you and Amadeu were in the resistance.
- And Jorge, his best friend.
- Oh yes, he wrote a lot about Jorge.
Oh, they were joined
at the heart and the soul.
For a time...
But Amadeu, he was too soft
for the resistance.
He only joined
because he feel quilt.
Mariana tells me
you are from Switzerland?
Yes, Bern.
There was never a revolution
in Switzerland, was there?
No. Somehow they always
managed to avoid such things.
They wouldn't know what it's like
to live without trusting.
No one to trust,
no friends, no family.
I met his sister, Adriana.
She...
She acts as if he is still alive.
And she wears black
as is in mourning.
Looking at only fill
my cup halfway?
No one has ever done that
for me before.
Yeah, it burns.
A gift from PIDE, the Portuguese Secret Police.
[Polcia Internacional e de Defesa do Estado]
Rui Lus Mendes was his name.
["Butcher of Lisbon"]
1973,
in the spring time...
I'm home.
Who are you?
Where's my wife?
She kindly
took your children for a walk.
This woman that knows all the names.
Where do I find her?
I do not know...
I do not know
what you are talking about.
Your wife tells me
you are an excellent pianist...
Will you play for me?
And my friend?
Please.
Can I see you hands?
Please.
- What should I play?
- Play as your favorite.
They say she has
a photographic memory.
Is that true?
I ask you once more,
where is she?
What made it
all that more terrible
was that someone said yeah
Amadeu, he saved Mendes' life.
Dinnertime. They-- they serve us
early here, like in prison.
Not for the inmates, you understand,
but for the staff.
I'm glad he finally been
able to tell someone about it.
I just wish it had been me.
It is ofter easier
to speak with strangers.
With my family it's a bit different.
Pain is something we pretend
happens to other people.
When Uncle Joo disappeared,
our parent told us
he had gone to Brazil to work.
Then after the Revolution,
when he was released,
they told us he had an accident
with his hands.
- He is very fond of you.
- He is?
He said you are the only one
from the family who ever visited.
He is always so grumpy,
I don't blame the others.
- What else did he say?
- He said he wish you are married.
I hate him!
Then when you visited,
there'll be children.
He actually said that?
And he is fond of me?
Do you have children?
No.
I have my students...
but the faces change every year,
so I try not to too fond of them.
I think now
you are staying another day?
Yes, I might have to.
Beautiful glasses.
Father Bartolomeu?
Yes.
Joo Ea tells me that you
buried Amadeu de Prado.
I would prefer to be
remembered in this manner:
who taught Amadeu,
not the one who buried him.
Amadeu was 12 years old
when he first came to the school.
He came with no bag, no books...
and read them all, you think.
Everything was in his head.
What does he say about the school,
in his book?
"For 1922 days,..."
"I attended the 'Liceu (school)'
where my Father sent me,..."
"the strictest school
in the whole country."
"By the third day I realized
I had to count the days,..."
"so as not to be crushed by it."
He hated it that much?
Were Jorge and Amadeu
in the same class?
Uh, no. Not at first.
Amadeu skipped 2 grades.
He was that bright, you see.
And for 2 years,
they were in the same class.
Or I should say,
they were in a class of their own.
Amadeu, the aristocrat,
and Jorge, the working class boy.
They had a very noted curiosity
in those two.
They would lie to their mothers
that they were going to spend
the night at the friend's house.
Instead, they came here.
How did you find them, Jorge?
I was sleeping here
and I found the floor was loosen.
- Jean-Paul Sartre (French philosopher)...
- Karl Marx (German philosopher)...
Henry Miller (American writer)...
My God, if we found these books...
We would end up in Tarrafal ("Camp of the Slow Death")
along with all the other political prisoners.
But your father would never
allow that, would he? Amadeu.
He would get Grand Minister Salazar
personally intervene
and have the case thrown out of court.
You think it is a joke
my father is a judge.
I think it is a joke that
the son of a green grocer
has friended with
the son of a judge.
That is funny.
You have to admit.
Amadeu would have been
unhappy wherever he was.
He never played games with the other boys.
He never let himself go...
except one time.
No body forgot that time.
Make room there boys.
Make room.
- My father is here.
- Of course he is. What do you expect?
You should read this, Jorge.
You wrote most of them anyway.
They are your words.
I only helped to choose them.
- Amadeu, which is our religion?
- Loyalty.
What are our values?
Truth, above all else.
Exactly. Just keep your eyes on me
and you'll be fine.
As is traditional,
we end our ceremony with
a grade 12 graduation speech.
In this year,
that honor will be bestow
to Amadeu de Almeida Prado.
I would not like to live
in a world without cathedrals.
I need their beauty
and grandeur
against the dirty colors
of military uniforms.
I love the powerful words
of the Bible.
I need the force
of its poetry.
I need it against
the decay of language
and the dictatorship
of worthless slogans.
But there is another world
I do not wish to live in.
A world in which
independent thinking is disparaged,
and the finest things we can
experience denounced as sin.
A world in which our love
is demanded by tyrants,
oppressors and assassin.
And most absurdly,
people are exhorted from the pulpit
to forgive these creatures
and even to love them.
It is for this reason
we cannot just put the Bible aside.
We have to throw it away
completely.
for it speaks only of
vain holier-than-thou.
In his omnipresent,
the Lord observes us day and night.
He takes note of our acts and thoughts.
But what is a man without secrets?
Without thoughts and wishes
that he, and he alone, knows?
Does the Lord our God
not consider
He's stealing our soul
with his unbridled curiosity,
a soul that should be immortal?
But who would in all seriousness
want to be immortal?
How boring to know that
what happens today,
this month, this year,
does not matter?
Nothing would count.
No one here knows what
it would be like to live eternally.
And it's a blessing we never will.
One thing I can assure you,
it would be hell,
this endless paradise of immortality.
It is death and only death,
that gives each moment
beauty and horror.
Only through death is time living thing.
Why does the Lord not noticed?
Why does He threaten us
with a... endlessness
that can only be
unbearably desolate?
I would not want to live
in a world without cathedrals.
I need the luster
of their windows,
their cool stillness,
their imperious silence.
I need the holiness of words,
the grandeur of great poetry.
But just as much
I need the freedom
to rebel against everything
that is cruel in this world.
For the one is nothing
without the other.
And no one
may force me to choose.
What do you think?
I though you would
deliver a speech in Latin.
But then, only a very few,
would understood it.
Are you friends with that boy?
We are the best of friends.
All of those faces, and more,
came to his funeral.
He died on the day of the Revolution.
Oh so, they all brought red carnations.
I dared not speak any words about God
after what Amadeu called
"His empty promises."
But I did allow myself...
one religious word.
Amen.
I was very proud of him.
And why did you
never tell him, papa?
To this day, I never found out
what secret bound those two together,
and what that to do with
Amadeu.
- My brother is not here.
- I know.
Go away.
I know what happened.
He had an aneurysm.
[abnormal widening of an artery]
[leading to thin vessel wall]
It's in the book.
How do you live with that?
No one had ever telling him
blood vessel could burst,
flooding your brain
with blood?
I only found out after
when I discovered his writings.
He never told anyone.
Not even me.
I am sorry.
I didn't mean to upset you.
No, wait.
Let me show you
where he worked.
People came day and night,
to see him,
to be healed.
No one should be in pain,
he always used to say.
The door was always opened.
I met Joo Ea.
He mentioned that
Amadeu was in the resistance...
Huh.
the resistance...
... and that he saved
Mendes' life.
It was late in the evening.
There were terrible shouts
across the square.
Murderer!
The Police!
We need help!
Get the doctor.
In there!
Amadeu,
you need to come, now.
Is this...?
Out. Out!
Adriana.
A traitor.
Traitor!
Traitor.
- You are a traitor!
- I'm a doctor.
You hear me?
A doctor!
You are a traitor!
He sat him down in this very chair
and washed his face.
His beautiful face.
After that, people stopped coming.
Even Jorge.
That pretty hurt him.
You know of Jorge?
I know they were great friends.
- Why is the world so cruel?
- I ask myself that...
- It is if it doesn't care.
- God doesn't care.
Amadeu was right about that.
I would like to be alone now.
- May I call on you again?
- Why?
His life, his world, was...
... extraordinary. Makes my
seem so insignificant.
- You have cigarettes?
- Which brand?
Um...
You brought them?
No, wait, wait.
Everyone here is a spy.
Worse than the damn fascists.
We go outside.
You didn't telephone me
just to get cigarettes.
I called because...
talking to me let me sleep better,
last night.
Amadeu, he never smoked.
He's the only one who didn't.
Jorge, he smoked like a chimney.
- Jorge, uh-- is he still alive?
- I don't know.
I never talk to him after
what happened with Estefnia.
No one knew how to.
It was too personal.
Who is Estefnia?
The woman who remember everything.
That's why they picked me up
to get to her.
Lieutenant Nicholas Ribeiro.
Benfica. 28 December.
Telephone, 857-2463.
7th Article.
Captain Carlos Peixe.
Sintra, 47 Rua (street)...
Sh-e-e.
Is that Amadeu de Prado?
Jorge...
- Are you in there?
- Let him in.
Why have you been avoiding me?
Everyone else I can understand.
But you?
I am not avoiding you.
You are lying, Jorge.
We do not lie to each other!
I want to join the resistance.
Because of guilt?
As a doctor,
I had no choice.
As a doctor, you should have
injected poison into his heart.
Not adrenaline [medical stimulant].
Sit, Amadeu.
Are you going to
introduce me to your friends?
This is Joo
And this, is Estefnia.
I was going to
introduce you sooner but...
the resistance keeps us busy.
Is she beautiful?
What if you first assignment
was to kill your father?
- Why?
- Because he is a judge.
Part of the fascist regime.
Don't be upset, Amadeu.
I was just testing you.
You knew it, straight away.
E-- even Jorge would see it.
Estefnia, she was
completely drawn to him.
And the names and addresses?
Members of the armed forces
sympathetic to our cause.
She had them
stock piled in her head
more than 200 names,
waiting for the day we call them,
rise up against the fascists.
- May I have my key please?
- Of course sir.
Is Miss. de Prado at home?
She asked for you to wait,
if you come.
Why you bring back the past?
I want to know how it
felt to be Amadeu.
Did you know him?
Amadeu, you must eat.
You need to be strong
for your final exams.
Stand up.
Sit down.
Mom come help me.
I have to do this
otherwise you will die.
Take your hands away.
Adriana, trust me.
Clotilde, call an ambulance!
The ambulance
and the doctor came
and Adiana was rushed
to hospital.
You can leave us now,
Clotilde.
The doctor said
I did the right thing.
Why did you say nothing?
Why do you judge me so?
The intervention
is called tracheotomy.
If I hadn't done it,
you would have carried her out in a coffin.
I too shall have
a cup of tea with you.
So now, you know.
From then on
I was indebted to him.
Just as Rui Mendes
was indebted to him.
The police knew very well the...
clinic was been used
as a cover for the resistance.
They never
came and searched.
People would drop off
envelopes of money, and...
names, addresses, maps.
And then she would come.
Next.
Why have you not call me?
I left messages.
I have something for Joo.
I have to talk to you.
I cannot go on with Jorge.
Leave us.
Adriana, leave us.
Then one night,
it-- it all ended.
How?
Something had happened...
I do not know what, except that
was the last time I ever saw her.
- There are patients waiting for you.
- Send them away.
We do not send patients away?!
Do it now.
If someone comes to the door.
Do not answer it.
Switch off the lights.
We are not here.
Joo Ea is at the door.
I'll be back.
Amadeu!
Come. Come in.
Where is she?
Estefnia?
I don't know.
She went one way, I went another.
Jorge came to me;
the problem is Estefnia.
What do you mean?
He wants...
he wants to eliminate her.
What?
He said if they get to her,
they'll get the names.
It will be the end of it.
Jorge wants to kill Estefnia?
If she or Jorge come here,
call me.
- You understand?
- I understand.
Okay.
What a mess.
What are you going to do?
Pack a bag and some food;
I am taking the car.
- To where?
- Away from here.
- With her?
- Of course with her.
No, please no,
Amadeu!
I beg you,
don't do this thing!
Tell them she's here.
Don't go away with her.
I beg you!
Please, don't go!
Do as I say.
Don't do this thing,
it's wrong!
Something terrible will happen,
I know it will!
He stepped over me.
I'll never forget that.
He stepped over me...
like I was... nothing.
Could I have a coffee, please?
Mr. Kagi, its me.
I am sorry
I missed your call yesterday.
Don't tell me
you are still in Lisbon?
- Yes, I am.
- Where are you staying?
Hotel Silva.
You wouldn't have heard...
Is it raining in Bern?
I can't keep teaching your class,
you have to come back.
You don't come back, I am going
to have to get replacement for you.
You want me to do this?
- Perhaps...
- I need a "yes" or "no", Raimund.
Mr. Kagi, I have to go.
I'm sorry.
Why are you following me?
Where does this come from?
His sister, Adriana,
came across his notes.
She put them together in a book.
I came across that in Bern, Switzerland.
I want to know what
happened to Estefnia.
- Why?
- Amadeu is dead...
Adriana does not know.
You are the only one who does.
Get the hell out of here!
Get out!
Why has my uncle
started smoking again?
What?
The doctor from
the nursing home called me
and told me a stranger visited him
and brought him some cigarettes.
- But he asked me to bring him...
- Are you trying to kill him?
He already has emphysema!
[a chronic lung disease]
Yeah, but he enjoys smoking.
Why deny him that pleasure?
Because it's bad for him.
So is in that nursing home.
Reminds him of being in prison.
- How are your new glasses?
- I'm getting used to them.
Would you have dinner with me?
I thought you never ask.
If-- if-- if Jesus had been
put to death with a guillotine
we all be praying before a big shiny blade.
Or-- or if He've been electrocuted
we will be genuflecting in front of a chair.
But can you really do that?
Nobody dislike to be another person
without being the other person.
You can "imagine" what it's like
to be that other person.
"Imagination is our last sanctuary."
That's one of his lines.
There he also said,
"Intimacy is our last sanctuary."
You remember the lines verbatim.
Uh that's figure they--
they mean something to me.
Poor Estefnia, she--
she remembered everything,
even trivial things --
numbers, names,
phone numbers, addresses...
To have a memory like that
must drive me mad.
Sorry, I am going on.
I haven't talked
as much as this for years.
No, no.
I'm fascinated...
May I ask you
how long you have been on you own?
Five and a half years.
But before that,
you spoke to you wife?
Yes...
but it...
usually landed me in trouble.
What kind of trouble?
Well, we threw a party to our colleagues...
well... our friends.
And she found this quote from
Pessoa [Fernando Pessoa, a Portuguese poet]:
"Fields are greener in their description
than their actual greenness."
And somebody said,
"Ow that's a beautiful sentence."
I said, "Yes, but, only a very few
people would ever understand it."
And there was-- terrible silence,
and then she said, my wife...
She said, "And I suppose you
are one of the chosen few?"
So, that was the end of that party.
But you were right.
Yes, but-- it-- was arrogance of me.
Stupid marriage.
And is that why she left you,
because of your arrogance?
No. I think she left me because
she found me...
boring.
We are still in touch.
She called the other day,
she wanted me to move
my books out of the garage,
because her new boyfriend
wanted somewhere to park his car.
Don't know why I am
telling you all of these.
- Would you like to dance?
- No, I can't. I can't dance.
You see?
Boring.
Thank you.
I enjoyed that.
Raimund, you are not boring.
My uncle would like
to see you again.
Would you
take him some cigarettes?
- Jorge is still alive.
- You went see him?
Still running the same pharmacy.
Smoking cigarette
while he serves his customers.
- You brought some?
- Yes I did.
Estefnia was in the house
when I was there?
She found them together
in his study.
No wonder he lied to me...
because you know, he never lied.
He could not tolerate dishonesty.
What had happened
earlier that night?
Jorge's place become too small,
and so we hired a room in an
old warehouse for our meetings.
We pretended it was a literacy class.
Estefnia's idea.
We were so naive...
Nuno,
Beleza the railways.
The numbers you will call are:
Lisbon, 642-3518,
contact name, Leonardo;
Port, 235-5900,
contact name, Julius.
The signal to take over will
come from Radio Renaissance now.
It will be the song
that was banned. The song by...
- Excuse me. Are you lost?
- Is this the literacy class?
Yes, we were just finishing.
Please take a seat.
Most letters have more than
one pronunciation except
the letter "X",
and we'll explain that
in more detail next week.
Thank you all.
What is a professor
of music doing here?
I met someone who cannot read
I wanted to see for myself
what kind of course it was,
before recommending it.
What is this person's name?
Um-- ur--
Caspian.
How original...
Seat down, all of you!
Nobody leaves this room!
Out. Out!
Give me your gun.
What for?
We have to do
what is right for the resistance.
- What happened to the others?
- Estefnia and Amadeu they got away. But...
they gonna find her
and then she will talk.
The others they don't know much.
But Estefnia, she knows everything.
What are you talking about?
You want to kill Estefnia?
No.
No, no.
I don't want to,
but I have to.
One life for many lifes.
Give it to me.
Joo, give it to me.
I never find out
what really happened.
Did he tell you?
No. When I asked him,
he tell me to-- get lost.
I need to know, I can't tell you
how many time I wish
I never have given him
that gun.
Three days later,
Rui Mendes he picked me up.
He broke my hands
and my spirit,
but I never give him
one single name.
You-- you-- you tell that to Jorge.
He knows me.
"Youth, we live
as if we were immortal."
"Knowledge of mortality
dances around us..."
"like a brittle paper ribbon
that barely touches our skin."
"When in life does that change?"
"When does the ribbon tighten..."
"until finally it strangles us?"
Mr. Kagi?
Have you made a decision yet?
No.
A woman came asking for you.
She said she met you on a bridge, or something.
A Portuguese woman?
I told him where you were
but she left.
If you decide not to come back,
I need your keys.
- Would you post them to me?
- No, this woman...
Did-- did she leave her name?
No.
Goodbye, Mr. Kagi.
Joo Ea want to know
what happened to Estefnia.
He says you owe him.
I owe no one anything.
You know
what they did to his hands?
Those hands that used to play Mozart?
He didn't give them one name.
If he had,
you wouldn't be standing here.
You think you can
blackmail me with guilt?
You don't know
who you are dealing with!
Could I haven't killed her?
That is the question!
Don't you know we don't talk about--
about the resistance here?
We bury our history
and move on!
You want a drink?
You are sitting
where Amadeu used to sit,
until this thing
with Mendes happened, then we...
We have the list of
reasons for loyalty:
guilt towards others,
shared suffering,
common struggle, common strength,
weakness,
need for closeness,
common hatred,
shared humor, and so on.
- What about love?
- He didn't believe in it.
Avoided the word
as too sentimental.
There are only 3 things
that are important to him:
desire,
pleasure and security.
Desire...
she is Jewish.
I don't trust people
who don't drink.
Have a cigarette.
You are okay?
Yeah.
- Joo still loves to smoke?
- He would.
The night after we graduated
from Coimbra University,
me as a pharmacist,
Amadeu was a doctor.
- What?
- Come, I have something to show you.
What do you think?
So? It's a--
it's a pharmacy.
Yes... It's yours.
Come in.
I need a pharmacist I can trust
if I am going to be writing up prescriptions.
Here.
I could not believe
what he given me.
After that I never thought
we could lose our friendship.
I never thought it possible.
One not much to look as,
I know I'm an ugly bastard.
So, when she came along...
God, she was beautiful
I thought some of her
would somehow rub off on me.
At least that is
what I think I thought.
And this is Estefnia.
Was going to introduce you,
but...
The resistance keeps us busy.
Isn't she beautiful?
It was the way she took my hand
and removed it from her neck.
Her eyes penetrating him...
We'll think about it, Amadeu,
and get back to you.
Alright?
Perhaps we can
use your clinic as a drop.
Why did you take my hand
off your neck?
Did I?
Have you ever been in love?
So that not even food matters.
Not even words.
- I am not sure.
- You would be sure. Your would know.
You always know.
- You thinking of him.
- What?
You wished I was Amadeu.
Does he mention me
in the book?
A lot.
And I am surprise
she published it. Adriana hated me.
Wanted him for herself,
even not even want to share him
with her father.
You know what happened to him?
No.
A few months before the revolution,
he went to Amadeu who endorsed for
stronger pain killer for his back.
Adriana came every week
to the pharmacy for the pills.
But he never took them;
he hoarded them.
A week after Amadeu died,
he swallowed over one hundred.
The newspapers said he died there
after a long illness...
Catholics don't appreciate suicide.
Everyone out!
Estefnia, come with me.
If I had the gun then
I might have shot her.
And when you got the gun?
I went strict
to Amadeu's clinic.
I knew
they would be there.
- Where are they?
- They've gone.
- Don't lie to me...
- They've gone, Jorge.
Give me the gun.
Estefnia, is she--
is she still alive?
I bumped into her
two years ago.
She was here
attending some seminar, or...
I asked her
how she was.
She told me
she was teaching history.
Where?
At the University of Salamanca, Spain.
And, your pharmacy...
Why do you
leave the lights on at night?
To remind me of Amadeu.
Mr. da Silva,
can I have my bill please?
- Are you going back to Switzerland, sir?
- Yes, via Spain.
They say weather right now
in Switzerland is terrible
rain, snowing, wind...
I have to go.
Could I have my bill please?
Excuse me.
Hello!
I want to thank you
for what happened on the bridge.
- I've been reading your book.
- I don't want it.
I just want to thank you
for what you did.
I got your coat.
You left it behind.
Tell me your name.
Catarina Mendes.
Yes...
that Mendes.
I am the granddaughter
of the "Butcher of Lisbon".
I didn't know who we was
until I read the book.
You can't blame yourself for
what you grandfather did...
You don't understand.
I loved him.
I cried at his funeral...
And I did not understand
why so many other people
were not crying.
Anyway...
it will take some time,
but I learned to live with this.
This would be the same road
they took.
But at night,
and in great danger.
And in love.
I was moved to see
my uncle cry like that.
I don't know what pleases him more.
The news that Estefnia is still alive,
or, got the cigarettes we gave him.
So, you are returning to your school
and continue teaching?
If they'll have me.
I am sure I'll come back and visit.
Are you sure she'll be in?
She said she'll be here...
Are you coming?
I'll wait in the car.
Go Raimund.
I'll be fine here. Take your time.
Welcome Raimund.
- I'm Estefnia.
- Thank you so much for meeting me.
You have the book?
I do.
He only looks
just as I remember him.
So long ago and
still so here...
- Would you like some tea?
- Thank you!
What about your friend?
Only she is, um,
she is happy in the car.
I joined the resistant
after my father was arrested in
1971, for sabotage.
They sent him to Tarrafal.
You have heard of it?
Yes.
It was also known as
the "Campo da Morte Lenta",
"The Camp of the Slow Death".
It took them two years
to kill him.
And that is how I met Jorge.
I need someone strong.
Someone to protect me.
I thought that was love.
But then I met Amadeu...
A new light fell on
everything.
My whole life.
I could not sleep
any more.
I went to the clinic
as often as I could...
despite Adriana's look.
He wanted to take me in his arm
but he kept rejecting me.
"Jorge", he would say, "What about Jorge?"
I began to hate Jorge.
- Do you mind if I smoke?
- No. Please.
Jealousy is a terrible emotion.
I could tell from his shoulders
he had seen us.
Awful... awful.
But in a way I was
relieved it was done.
Are you sure
your friend is alright?
Oh yes.
She is fine in the car.
We drove through the night.
Amadeu kept questioning me.
Was he searching for me
or for life?
He wanted to know
everything my whole life, like,
memories,
thoughts, fantasies, dreams...
It was relentless.
It was almost a relief when
5 km from the border
he stopped
and hid me in the trunk.
Passport.
- Why are you traveling to Spain?
- I am going to visit relatives.
Get out of the car,
please.
Keys.
Do you know
Major Rui Lus Mendes of PIDE?
What about him?
I want you to call him.
I have his home number.
I want you to tell him
your are treating me like a criminal.
He wants to talk to you.
This is Dr. Amadeu de Prado.
You are asking too much of me.
You took my life away from me.
I want it back now.
Give the phone back
to my man.
Ironic that I should
ultimately be saved...
by the Butcher of Lisbon.
That night...
we drove to Finisterra
and slept in the car.
Don't go away.
We'll take a ship
to the Amazon
to a new world
only you and I existed.
I write books...
we invent a new language
that only you and I understand.
We go up the river
as far as it takes us.
Back in time
and into the future.
The very beginning of the end.
What would I do?
You'll share it with me.
The same air,
the same feelings, same tastes...
Things that you want...
you want them for yourself,
not for me.
I want them
for both of us.
He was hungry for me,
and for life.
But the journey he wanted to take
was into his own soul
not into mine.
I cannot do it,
Amadeu.
What do you mean?
You want more
than I can ever give.
And I'm not ready.
I'm so sorry...
I have friends
in Salamanca.
Will you take me to them?
He drove me to Salamanca...
he shook my hand,
he wished me well
and left.
The next I heard,
he was dead.
I always thought I killed him.
- He had an aneurysm.
- An aneurysm?
A blood vessel
burst in his brain.
He...
He had it for a long time.
Did you go to his funeral?
You didn't really think
I would do it, did you?
It is no longer important.
So what happened to the
names and telephone numbers
you had in you head?
Lisbon
331-4518,
contact name, Carlos;
Sintra, 245-102,
contact name, Nuno...
I wrote them all down and
passed them on to someone safe.
A few months later they were
used to initiate the revolution.
Your friend must be
very tire of waiting.
- You can keep the book if you like.
- Thank you.
And probably more ready for him now
than I was back then.
- Goodbye, Raymund.
- Goodbye, Estefnia.
"We leave something of ourselves behind
when we leave a place,"
"we stay there,
even though we go away."
"And there are things in us
that we can find again..."
"only by going back there."
"We travel to our souls
when we go to a place..."
"that we have covered
a stretch of our life,"
"no matter how brief
it may have been."
This is me.
Well, we still got...
5 minutes.
Thank you for...
telling me I wasn't boring.
But when I think of their lives,
Amadeu, Estefnia,
the others,
their lives full of such vitality,
- intensity...
- So much so it broke them apart in the end.
But they lived.
Whereas my life...
apart from these
last few days...
And now you are
going back to it.
Oh, why don't you just stay?
What?
Why don't you just stay?
That will make you think.
Based on the novel
"Night Train to Lisbon"
by Pascal Mercier
(Bern, Switzerland)
Stay there!
Thank you.
May I walk with you?
Fine.
- Good morning, ladies and gentlemen.
- Good morning, sir!
We have a visitor,
this morning.
Your coat...
Have a seat there.
I am afraid there is a
slight mishap on the way here...
I think the corrections
would still be legible.
Max, would you...
do the honors?
More work require there...
No opportunity
to honor and respect yourself.
But Marcus Aurelius was worth
philosopher and an emperor.
There's no coincidence,
that was the way with the Romans.
Thought and action were all one.
I think we were
chapter 12, page 42.
Natalie,
perhaps you da... begin?
"How can it be that the Gods...
overlooked this alone,
that some lost men...
and those very good men,
who have had the most... "
"into the course with the divine."
Uh, just keep on going.
"If it is so that we live
only a small part of the life
which is within us,"
" what happens to the rest?"
Hello, Mr. Gregorius.
I am afraid your book on
Persian grammar has yet to arrive.
Uh no, that's not why I came...
Do you know that book?
Indeed,
I sold it to someone yesterday.
A woman?
Yes. She came in, asked
for the Portuguese section
from this book.
Sat there.
Read it for an hour or so
then became rather upset.
Paid for the book and left...
How did you come by?
I found it.
Beautiful title.
"UM OURIVES DAS PALAVRAS"
"A Goldsmith of Words."
Train tickets.
- Where to?
- Lisbon, eventually.
Leaving in 15 minutes.
- Thank you.
- She was wearing that coat!
Attention please.
Line 10 on platform 8
is now leaving...
What is all this noise?
- Where is Mr. Gregorius?
- He left, Mr. Kagi.
He left?
There was a woman with him here.
Impossible.
"We live here and now."
"Everything before
and in other places is past."
"Mostly forgotten."
Hello.
Uh, this is Mr. Kagi.
Where are you?
- On a train.
- A train?
- Where to?
- Lisbon.
Would you take care of my books?
I left them on my desk.
"What could,
what should be done..."
"with all the time
that lies ahead of us,"
"open and unshaped,"
"feather-light in its freedom..."
"and lead-heavy in its uncertainty?"
"Is it a wish?"
"Dream like and nostalgic,"
"to stand once again
at that point in life..."
"and be able to take a
completely different direction..."
"to the one which has
made us who we are?"
Do you have a room?
- Where is your luggage?
- I don't have any.
I will trust you
and give you a room.
With a view of the sea.
There. The sea.
- Anything else, sir?
- Yes
I wanted to find the address
of the man who wrote this.
Thank you.
- Anything else?
- No, thank you.
Good morning,
I am looking for Amadeu de Prado.
One moment.
I believe you are
looking for my brother?
- Yes. Is the doctor in?
- Are you ill?
No, I'm...
I am reading this book.
I very much like to meet him.
What he writes
touches me very deeply.
You should come inside.
You may sit.
Some tea?
Red Assam is Amadeu's preference.
Thank you.
Tea, Clotilde.
This is Amadeu's favorite room.
It's beautiful room.
He has read everyone
of those books.
Does he still practice
as a doctor?
Where did you get it?
I came across it in Bern,
where I live.
Only a hundred were ever printed.
I have six copies left.
I often wonder where
the other 94 went.
Bern is in Switzerland,
is it not?
Yes.
And the book has traveled?...
That is a good thing.
- Has he written anything else?
- Nothing that has been published.
He wanted to be
a writer, a philosopher...
Then he decided
to become a doctor.
He didn't believe
people should be in pain.
- Is that him?
- That is our father
- He was a famous judge.
- So, I gather from the book.
He and Amadeu had a
rather complicated relationship.
"Consider from the standpoint of eternity
that rather loses its significance."
Yes.
- He often said that to Amadeu.
- Amadeu does not believe in eternity.
Unfortunately not.
I don't mean to pry, but...
may I ask
how your father died?
No. No, you may not.
If you want to see Amadeu...
you will find him
in Cemetery Prazeres.
"We leave something
of ourselves behind..."
"when we leave a place,..."
"we stay there,
even though we go away."
"And there are things in us..."
"that we can find again
only by going back there."
"We travel to our souls
when we go to a place..."
"that we have covered
a stretch of our life,..."
"no matter how brief
it may have been."
"But by travelling to ourselves,
we must confront our own loneliness.
"And isn't it so
that everything we do..."
"is done out of fear
of loneliness?"
"Isn't that why we renounce..."
"all the things we will regret
at the end of our life?
Excuse me. I am looking for
Amadeu de Almeida Prado.
- Prado.
- Thank you.
(In Portuguese)
"...When dictatorship is a fact,
revolution is a duty..."
Merda idiota! (Portuguese)
["Fucking idiot!"]
"Is it ultimately a
question of self-image,"
"the determining idea
one has made for oneself..."
"of what one has to have
accomplished and experienced..."
"so that one can approve of
the life one has lived?"
"If this is the case,"
"the fear of death
might be described..."
"as the fear of not being able to
become whom one planned to be."
"If the certainty befalls us
that it will..."
"never be achieved,
this wholeness,"
"we suddenly don't know
how to live the time..."
"that can no longer be
part of the whole life."
Better?
Or worse?
Better.
- You feel as if you wrote the book yourself?
- I would like to then.
Talks about everything
that preoccupying him for years.
Better? Or worse?
Worse.
Tell me one of these
beautiful sentences you read.
"The real director of life
is accident --"
"a director full of cruelty,"
"compassion and bewitching charm."
By accident, he means fate?
No, I think he means chance,
randomness chance.
Let's take a break,
rest your eyes for a moment.
You are a man
who does not sleep well.
- You can tell?
- The eyes reveal everything.
Look at these eyes.
Tell me what they reveal.
Melancholic, but hopeful.
Tire, but persistent.
Contradictory.
Why would his sister
pretend that he is still alive?
I have no idea.
Shall we resume?
So you met a woman in a red coat
who disappeared...
- ... and you just dropped everything?
- Then I read the book.
I would love to be able to do that,
just drop everything...
- You do that often?
- No, I never done anything like that before.
Best? Or worse?
Uh, better.
How does that feel?
You talk about seeing his feeling.
- Well, isn't it?
- I suppose it is.
- How clear is it? The image.
- Very clear.
And how about this?
Everything is in focus.
Sir, we have this
new one here...
"The decisive moment of life,"
"when its direction
changes forever,"
"are not always marked by
loud and shrill dramatics."
"In truth, the dramatic moments
of a life-determining experience..."
"are often unbelievable low-key."
"When it unfolds
its revolutionary effect..."
"and make sure that life that it revealed
in a brand-new light."
"It does that silently."
"And in this wonderful silence
resides its special nobility."
Now you wonder if
the old pair were better.
- Yes.
- But they are not, are they?
No, they feel very light.
Getting used to them
will take some time.
- You take credit cards?
- You can sort all that out with my receptionist.
Before you go...
I have an uncle.
He lives in a nursing home
across the Tejo (river Tagus).
I called him last night
and told him about you and the book.
He knew Amadeu de Prado well.
I told him you want to know about Amadeu
and he said he'll talk to you.
He was in the resistance.
I must warn you,
my uncle can be difficult.
In what way?
The generation that
lived under the dictator Salazar
is still battling to come to terms
with what happened.
When the resistance began,
the Secret Police were extremely brutal.
To this day,
people don't like talking about it,
The block of jail
as well as their victims.
Uncle Joo, how are you?
What you doing here?
This is the man I was telling you about,
Raimund Gregorius.
- I brought him.
- I said I talk to him, not you.
- But...
- You can wait in reception.
We go to the lounge.
So, you are interested
in Amadeu de Prado?
Yes.
Mariana tells me
you have a book of him?
Would you like to see it?
I can imagine what it is like.
A godless priest.
That's a good description.
He was the only visitor there
allowed in prison.
Every week he visits,
with books and medicines,
and cigarettes...
which of course, they take away
the moment he leaves.
Yeah, he had privileges.
- What sort of privileges?
- The kind you don't want in life.
- Do you have cigarette?
- No, sorry, I don't smoke.
Pity.
Mariana tells me that
you and Amadeu were in the resistance.
- And Jorge, his best friend.
- Oh yes, he wrote a lot about Jorge.
Oh, they were joined
at the heart and the soul.
For a time...
But Amadeu, he was too soft
for the resistance.
He only joined
because he feel quilt.
Mariana tells me
you are from Switzerland?
Yes, Bern.
There was never a revolution
in Switzerland, was there?
No. Somehow they always
managed to avoid such things.
They wouldn't know what it's like
to live without trusting.
No one to trust,
no friends, no family.
I met his sister, Adriana.
She...
She acts as if he is still alive.
And she wears black
as is in mourning.
Looking at only fill
my cup halfway?
No one has ever done that
for me before.
Yeah, it burns.
A gift from PIDE, the Portuguese Secret Police.
[Polcia Internacional e de Defesa do Estado]
Rui Lus Mendes was his name.
["Butcher of Lisbon"]
1973,
in the spring time...
I'm home.
Who are you?
Where's my wife?
She kindly
took your children for a walk.
This woman that knows all the names.
Where do I find her?
I do not know...
I do not know
what you are talking about.
Your wife tells me
you are an excellent pianist...
Will you play for me?
And my friend?
Please.
Can I see you hands?
Please.
- What should I play?
- Play as your favorite.
They say she has
a photographic memory.
Is that true?
I ask you once more,
where is she?
What made it
all that more terrible
was that someone said yeah
Amadeu, he saved Mendes' life.
Dinnertime. They-- they serve us
early here, like in prison.
Not for the inmates, you understand,
but for the staff.
I'm glad he finally been
able to tell someone about it.
I just wish it had been me.
It is ofter easier
to speak with strangers.
With my family it's a bit different.
Pain is something we pretend
happens to other people.
When Uncle Joo disappeared,
our parent told us
he had gone to Brazil to work.
Then after the Revolution,
when he was released,
they told us he had an accident
with his hands.
- He is very fond of you.
- He is?
He said you are the only one
from the family who ever visited.
He is always so grumpy,
I don't blame the others.
- What else did he say?
- He said he wish you are married.
I hate him!
Then when you visited,
there'll be children.
He actually said that?
And he is fond of me?
Do you have children?
No.
I have my students...
but the faces change every year,
so I try not to too fond of them.
I think now
you are staying another day?
Yes, I might have to.
Beautiful glasses.
Father Bartolomeu?
Yes.
Joo Ea tells me that you
buried Amadeu de Prado.
I would prefer to be
remembered in this manner:
who taught Amadeu,
not the one who buried him.
Amadeu was 12 years old
when he first came to the school.
He came with no bag, no books...
and read them all, you think.
Everything was in his head.
What does he say about the school,
in his book?
"For 1922 days,..."
"I attended the 'Liceu (school)'
where my Father sent me,..."
"the strictest school
in the whole country."
"By the third day I realized
I had to count the days,..."
"so as not to be crushed by it."
He hated it that much?
Were Jorge and Amadeu
in the same class?
Uh, no. Not at first.
Amadeu skipped 2 grades.
He was that bright, you see.
And for 2 years,
they were in the same class.
Or I should say,
they were in a class of their own.
Amadeu, the aristocrat,
and Jorge, the working class boy.
They had a very noted curiosity
in those two.
They would lie to their mothers
that they were going to spend
the night at the friend's house.
Instead, they came here.
How did you find them, Jorge?
I was sleeping here
and I found the floor was loosen.
- Jean-Paul Sartre (French philosopher)...
- Karl Marx (German philosopher)...
Henry Miller (American writer)...
My God, if we found these books...
We would end up in Tarrafal ("Camp of the Slow Death")
along with all the other political prisoners.
But your father would never
allow that, would he? Amadeu.
He would get Grand Minister Salazar
personally intervene
and have the case thrown out of court.
You think it is a joke
my father is a judge.
I think it is a joke that
the son of a green grocer
has friended with
the son of a judge.
That is funny.
You have to admit.
Amadeu would have been
unhappy wherever he was.
He never played games with the other boys.
He never let himself go...
except one time.
No body forgot that time.
Make room there boys.
Make room.
- My father is here.
- Of course he is. What do you expect?
You should read this, Jorge.
You wrote most of them anyway.
They are your words.
I only helped to choose them.
- Amadeu, which is our religion?
- Loyalty.
What are our values?
Truth, above all else.
Exactly. Just keep your eyes on me
and you'll be fine.
As is traditional,
we end our ceremony with
a grade 12 graduation speech.
In this year,
that honor will be bestow
to Amadeu de Almeida Prado.
I would not like to live
in a world without cathedrals.
I need their beauty
and grandeur
against the dirty colors
of military uniforms.
I love the powerful words
of the Bible.
I need the force
of its poetry.
I need it against
the decay of language
and the dictatorship
of worthless slogans.
But there is another world
I do not wish to live in.
A world in which
independent thinking is disparaged,
and the finest things we can
experience denounced as sin.
A world in which our love
is demanded by tyrants,
oppressors and assassin.
And most absurdly,
people are exhorted from the pulpit
to forgive these creatures
and even to love them.
It is for this reason
we cannot just put the Bible aside.
We have to throw it away
completely.
for it speaks only of
vain holier-than-thou.
In his omnipresent,
the Lord observes us day and night.
He takes note of our acts and thoughts.
But what is a man without secrets?
Without thoughts and wishes
that he, and he alone, knows?
Does the Lord our God
not consider
He's stealing our soul
with his unbridled curiosity,
a soul that should be immortal?
But who would in all seriousness
want to be immortal?
How boring to know that
what happens today,
this month, this year,
does not matter?
Nothing would count.
No one here knows what
it would be like to live eternally.
And it's a blessing we never will.
One thing I can assure you,
it would be hell,
this endless paradise of immortality.
It is death and only death,
that gives each moment
beauty and horror.
Only through death is time living thing.
Why does the Lord not noticed?
Why does He threaten us
with a... endlessness
that can only be
unbearably desolate?
I would not want to live
in a world without cathedrals.
I need the luster
of their windows,
their cool stillness,
their imperious silence.
I need the holiness of words,
the grandeur of great poetry.
But just as much
I need the freedom
to rebel against everything
that is cruel in this world.
For the one is nothing
without the other.
And no one
may force me to choose.
What do you think?
I though you would
deliver a speech in Latin.
But then, only a very few,
would understood it.
Are you friends with that boy?
We are the best of friends.
All of those faces, and more,
came to his funeral.
He died on the day of the Revolution.
Oh so, they all brought red carnations.
I dared not speak any words about God
after what Amadeu called
"His empty promises."
But I did allow myself...
one religious word.
Amen.
I was very proud of him.
And why did you
never tell him, papa?
To this day, I never found out
what secret bound those two together,
and what that to do with
Amadeu.
- My brother is not here.
- I know.
Go away.
I know what happened.
He had an aneurysm.
[abnormal widening of an artery]
[leading to thin vessel wall]
It's in the book.
How do you live with that?
No one had ever telling him
blood vessel could burst,
flooding your brain
with blood?
I only found out after
when I discovered his writings.
He never told anyone.
Not even me.
I am sorry.
I didn't mean to upset you.
No, wait.
Let me show you
where he worked.
People came day and night,
to see him,
to be healed.
No one should be in pain,
he always used to say.
The door was always opened.
I met Joo Ea.
He mentioned that
Amadeu was in the resistance...
Huh.
the resistance...
... and that he saved
Mendes' life.
It was late in the evening.
There were terrible shouts
across the square.
Murderer!
The Police!
We need help!
Get the doctor.
In there!
Amadeu,
you need to come, now.
Is this...?
Out. Out!
Adriana.
A traitor.
Traitor!
Traitor.
- You are a traitor!
- I'm a doctor.
You hear me?
A doctor!
You are a traitor!
He sat him down in this very chair
and washed his face.
His beautiful face.
After that, people stopped coming.
Even Jorge.
That pretty hurt him.
You know of Jorge?
I know they were great friends.
- Why is the world so cruel?
- I ask myself that...
- It is if it doesn't care.
- God doesn't care.
Amadeu was right about that.
I would like to be alone now.
- May I call on you again?
- Why?
His life, his world, was...
... extraordinary. Makes my
seem so insignificant.
- You have cigarettes?
- Which brand?
Um...
You brought them?
No, wait, wait.
Everyone here is a spy.
Worse than the damn fascists.
We go outside.
You didn't telephone me
just to get cigarettes.
I called because...
talking to me let me sleep better,
last night.
Amadeu, he never smoked.
He's the only one who didn't.
Jorge, he smoked like a chimney.
- Jorge, uh-- is he still alive?
- I don't know.
I never talk to him after
what happened with Estefnia.
No one knew how to.
It was too personal.
Who is Estefnia?
The woman who remember everything.
That's why they picked me up
to get to her.
Lieutenant Nicholas Ribeiro.
Benfica. 28 December.
Telephone, 857-2463.
7th Article.
Captain Carlos Peixe.
Sintra, 47 Rua (street)...
Sh-e-e.
Is that Amadeu de Prado?
Jorge...
- Are you in there?
- Let him in.
Why have you been avoiding me?
Everyone else I can understand.
But you?
I am not avoiding you.
You are lying, Jorge.
We do not lie to each other!
I want to join the resistance.
Because of guilt?
As a doctor,
I had no choice.
As a doctor, you should have
injected poison into his heart.
Not adrenaline [medical stimulant].
Sit, Amadeu.
Are you going to
introduce me to your friends?
This is Joo
And this, is Estefnia.
I was going to
introduce you sooner but...
the resistance keeps us busy.
Is she beautiful?
What if you first assignment
was to kill your father?
- Why?
- Because he is a judge.
Part of the fascist regime.
Don't be upset, Amadeu.
I was just testing you.
You knew it, straight away.
E-- even Jorge would see it.
Estefnia, she was
completely drawn to him.
And the names and addresses?
Members of the armed forces
sympathetic to our cause.
She had them
stock piled in her head
more than 200 names,
waiting for the day we call them,
rise up against the fascists.
- May I have my key please?
- Of course sir.
Is Miss. de Prado at home?
She asked for you to wait,
if you come.
Why you bring back the past?
I want to know how it
felt to be Amadeu.
Did you know him?
Amadeu, you must eat.
You need to be strong
for your final exams.
Stand up.
Sit down.
Mom come help me.
I have to do this
otherwise you will die.
Take your hands away.
Adriana, trust me.
Clotilde, call an ambulance!
The ambulance
and the doctor came
and Adiana was rushed
to hospital.
You can leave us now,
Clotilde.
The doctor said
I did the right thing.
Why did you say nothing?
Why do you judge me so?
The intervention
is called tracheotomy.
If I hadn't done it,
you would have carried her out in a coffin.
I too shall have
a cup of tea with you.
So now, you know.
From then on
I was indebted to him.
Just as Rui Mendes
was indebted to him.
The police knew very well the...
clinic was been used
as a cover for the resistance.
They never
came and searched.
People would drop off
envelopes of money, and...
names, addresses, maps.
And then she would come.
Next.
Why have you not call me?
I left messages.
I have something for Joo.
I have to talk to you.
I cannot go on with Jorge.
Leave us.
Adriana, leave us.
Then one night,
it-- it all ended.
How?
Something had happened...
I do not know what, except that
was the last time I ever saw her.
- There are patients waiting for you.
- Send them away.
We do not send patients away?!
Do it now.
If someone comes to the door.
Do not answer it.
Switch off the lights.
We are not here.
Joo Ea is at the door.
I'll be back.
Amadeu!
Come. Come in.
Where is she?
Estefnia?
I don't know.
She went one way, I went another.
Jorge came to me;
the problem is Estefnia.
What do you mean?
He wants...
he wants to eliminate her.
What?
He said if they get to her,
they'll get the names.
It will be the end of it.
Jorge wants to kill Estefnia?
If she or Jorge come here,
call me.
- You understand?
- I understand.
Okay.
What a mess.
What are you going to do?
Pack a bag and some food;
I am taking the car.
- To where?
- Away from here.
- With her?
- Of course with her.
No, please no,
Amadeu!
I beg you,
don't do this thing!
Tell them she's here.
Don't go away with her.
I beg you!
Please, don't go!
Do as I say.
Don't do this thing,
it's wrong!
Something terrible will happen,
I know it will!
He stepped over me.
I'll never forget that.
He stepped over me...
like I was... nothing.
Could I have a coffee, please?
Mr. Kagi, its me.
I am sorry
I missed your call yesterday.
Don't tell me
you are still in Lisbon?
- Yes, I am.
- Where are you staying?
Hotel Silva.
You wouldn't have heard...
Is it raining in Bern?
I can't keep teaching your class,
you have to come back.
You don't come back, I am going
to have to get replacement for you.
You want me to do this?
- Perhaps...
- I need a "yes" or "no", Raimund.
Mr. Kagi, I have to go.
I'm sorry.
Why are you following me?
Where does this come from?
His sister, Adriana,
came across his notes.
She put them together in a book.
I came across that in Bern, Switzerland.
I want to know what
happened to Estefnia.
- Why?
- Amadeu is dead...
Adriana does not know.
You are the only one who does.
Get the hell out of here!
Get out!
Why has my uncle
started smoking again?
What?
The doctor from
the nursing home called me
and told me a stranger visited him
and brought him some cigarettes.
- But he asked me to bring him...
- Are you trying to kill him?
He already has emphysema!
[a chronic lung disease]
Yeah, but he enjoys smoking.
Why deny him that pleasure?
Because it's bad for him.
So is in that nursing home.
Reminds him of being in prison.
- How are your new glasses?
- I'm getting used to them.
Would you have dinner with me?
I thought you never ask.
If-- if-- if Jesus had been
put to death with a guillotine
we all be praying before a big shiny blade.
Or-- or if He've been electrocuted
we will be genuflecting in front of a chair.
But can you really do that?
Nobody dislike to be another person
without being the other person.
You can "imagine" what it's like
to be that other person.
"Imagination is our last sanctuary."
That's one of his lines.
There he also said,
"Intimacy is our last sanctuary."
You remember the lines verbatim.
Uh that's figure they--
they mean something to me.
Poor Estefnia, she--
she remembered everything,
even trivial things --
numbers, names,
phone numbers, addresses...
To have a memory like that
must drive me mad.
Sorry, I am going on.
I haven't talked
as much as this for years.
No, no.
I'm fascinated...
May I ask you
how long you have been on you own?
Five and a half years.
But before that,
you spoke to you wife?
Yes...
but it...
usually landed me in trouble.
What kind of trouble?
Well, we threw a party to our colleagues...
well... our friends.
And she found this quote from
Pessoa [Fernando Pessoa, a Portuguese poet]:
"Fields are greener in their description
than their actual greenness."
And somebody said,
"Ow that's a beautiful sentence."
I said, "Yes, but, only a very few
people would ever understand it."
And there was-- terrible silence,
and then she said, my wife...
She said, "And I suppose you
are one of the chosen few?"
So, that was the end of that party.
But you were right.
Yes, but-- it-- was arrogance of me.
Stupid marriage.
And is that why she left you,
because of your arrogance?
No. I think she left me because
she found me...
boring.
We are still in touch.
She called the other day,
she wanted me to move
my books out of the garage,
because her new boyfriend
wanted somewhere to park his car.
Don't know why I am
telling you all of these.
- Would you like to dance?
- No, I can't. I can't dance.
You see?
Boring.
Thank you.
I enjoyed that.
Raimund, you are not boring.
My uncle would like
to see you again.
Would you
take him some cigarettes?
- Jorge is still alive.
- You went see him?
Still running the same pharmacy.
Smoking cigarette
while he serves his customers.
- You brought some?
- Yes I did.
Estefnia was in the house
when I was there?
She found them together
in his study.
No wonder he lied to me...
because you know, he never lied.
He could not tolerate dishonesty.
What had happened
earlier that night?
Jorge's place become too small,
and so we hired a room in an
old warehouse for our meetings.
We pretended it was a literacy class.
Estefnia's idea.
We were so naive...
Nuno,
Beleza the railways.
The numbers you will call are:
Lisbon, 642-3518,
contact name, Leonardo;
Port, 235-5900,
contact name, Julius.
The signal to take over will
come from Radio Renaissance now.
It will be the song
that was banned. The song by...
- Excuse me. Are you lost?
- Is this the literacy class?
Yes, we were just finishing.
Please take a seat.
Most letters have more than
one pronunciation except
the letter "X",
and we'll explain that
in more detail next week.
Thank you all.
What is a professor
of music doing here?
I met someone who cannot read
I wanted to see for myself
what kind of course it was,
before recommending it.
What is this person's name?
Um-- ur--
Caspian.
How original...
Seat down, all of you!
Nobody leaves this room!
Out. Out!
Give me your gun.
What for?
We have to do
what is right for the resistance.
- What happened to the others?
- Estefnia and Amadeu they got away. But...
they gonna find her
and then she will talk.
The others they don't know much.
But Estefnia, she knows everything.
What are you talking about?
You want to kill Estefnia?
No.
No, no.
I don't want to,
but I have to.
One life for many lifes.
Give it to me.
Joo, give it to me.
I never find out
what really happened.
Did he tell you?
No. When I asked him,
he tell me to-- get lost.
I need to know, I can't tell you
how many time I wish
I never have given him
that gun.
Three days later,
Rui Mendes he picked me up.
He broke my hands
and my spirit,
but I never give him
one single name.
You-- you-- you tell that to Jorge.
He knows me.
"Youth, we live
as if we were immortal."
"Knowledge of mortality
dances around us..."
"like a brittle paper ribbon
that barely touches our skin."
"When in life does that change?"
"When does the ribbon tighten..."
"until finally it strangles us?"
Mr. Kagi?
Have you made a decision yet?
No.
A woman came asking for you.
She said she met you on a bridge, or something.
A Portuguese woman?
I told him where you were
but she left.
If you decide not to come back,
I need your keys.
- Would you post them to me?
- No, this woman...
Did-- did she leave her name?
No.
Goodbye, Mr. Kagi.
Joo Ea want to know
what happened to Estefnia.
He says you owe him.
I owe no one anything.
You know
what they did to his hands?
Those hands that used to play Mozart?
He didn't give them one name.
If he had,
you wouldn't be standing here.
You think you can
blackmail me with guilt?
You don't know
who you are dealing with!
Could I haven't killed her?
That is the question!
Don't you know we don't talk about--
about the resistance here?
We bury our history
and move on!
You want a drink?
You are sitting
where Amadeu used to sit,
until this thing
with Mendes happened, then we...
We have the list of
reasons for loyalty:
guilt towards others,
shared suffering,
common struggle, common strength,
weakness,
need for closeness,
common hatred,
shared humor, and so on.
- What about love?
- He didn't believe in it.
Avoided the word
as too sentimental.
There are only 3 things
that are important to him:
desire,
pleasure and security.
Desire...
she is Jewish.
I don't trust people
who don't drink.
Have a cigarette.
You are okay?
Yeah.
- Joo still loves to smoke?
- He would.
The night after we graduated
from Coimbra University,
me as a pharmacist,
Amadeu was a doctor.
- What?
- Come, I have something to show you.
What do you think?
So? It's a--
it's a pharmacy.
Yes... It's yours.
Come in.
I need a pharmacist I can trust
if I am going to be writing up prescriptions.
Here.
I could not believe
what he given me.
After that I never thought
we could lose our friendship.
I never thought it possible.
One not much to look as,
I know I'm an ugly bastard.
So, when she came along...
God, she was beautiful
I thought some of her
would somehow rub off on me.
At least that is
what I think I thought.
And this is Estefnia.
Was going to introduce you,
but...
The resistance keeps us busy.
Isn't she beautiful?
It was the way she took my hand
and removed it from her neck.
Her eyes penetrating him...
We'll think about it, Amadeu,
and get back to you.
Alright?
Perhaps we can
use your clinic as a drop.
Why did you take my hand
off your neck?
Did I?
Have you ever been in love?
So that not even food matters.
Not even words.
- I am not sure.
- You would be sure. Your would know.
You always know.
- You thinking of him.
- What?
You wished I was Amadeu.
Does he mention me
in the book?
A lot.
And I am surprise
she published it. Adriana hated me.
Wanted him for herself,
even not even want to share him
with her father.
You know what happened to him?
No.
A few months before the revolution,
he went to Amadeu who endorsed for
stronger pain killer for his back.
Adriana came every week
to the pharmacy for the pills.
But he never took them;
he hoarded them.
A week after Amadeu died,
he swallowed over one hundred.
The newspapers said he died there
after a long illness...
Catholics don't appreciate suicide.
Everyone out!
Estefnia, come with me.
If I had the gun then
I might have shot her.
And when you got the gun?
I went strict
to Amadeu's clinic.
I knew
they would be there.
- Where are they?
- They've gone.
- Don't lie to me...
- They've gone, Jorge.
Give me the gun.
Estefnia, is she--
is she still alive?
I bumped into her
two years ago.
She was here
attending some seminar, or...
I asked her
how she was.
She told me
she was teaching history.
Where?
At the University of Salamanca, Spain.
And, your pharmacy...
Why do you
leave the lights on at night?
To remind me of Amadeu.
Mr. da Silva,
can I have my bill please?
- Are you going back to Switzerland, sir?
- Yes, via Spain.
They say weather right now
in Switzerland is terrible
rain, snowing, wind...
I have to go.
Could I have my bill please?
Excuse me.
Hello!
I want to thank you
for what happened on the bridge.
- I've been reading your book.
- I don't want it.
I just want to thank you
for what you did.
I got your coat.
You left it behind.
Tell me your name.
Catarina Mendes.
Yes...
that Mendes.
I am the granddaughter
of the "Butcher of Lisbon".
I didn't know who we was
until I read the book.
You can't blame yourself for
what you grandfather did...
You don't understand.
I loved him.
I cried at his funeral...
And I did not understand
why so many other people
were not crying.
Anyway...
it will take some time,
but I learned to live with this.
This would be the same road
they took.
But at night,
and in great danger.
And in love.
I was moved to see
my uncle cry like that.
I don't know what pleases him more.
The news that Estefnia is still alive,
or, got the cigarettes we gave him.
So, you are returning to your school
and continue teaching?
If they'll have me.
I am sure I'll come back and visit.
Are you sure she'll be in?
She said she'll be here...
Are you coming?
I'll wait in the car.
Go Raimund.
I'll be fine here. Take your time.
Welcome Raimund.
- I'm Estefnia.
- Thank you so much for meeting me.
You have the book?
I do.
He only looks
just as I remember him.
So long ago and
still so here...
- Would you like some tea?
- Thank you!
What about your friend?
Only she is, um,
she is happy in the car.
I joined the resistant
after my father was arrested in
1971, for sabotage.
They sent him to Tarrafal.
You have heard of it?
Yes.
It was also known as
the "Campo da Morte Lenta",
"The Camp of the Slow Death".
It took them two years
to kill him.
And that is how I met Jorge.
I need someone strong.
Someone to protect me.
I thought that was love.
But then I met Amadeu...
A new light fell on
everything.
My whole life.
I could not sleep
any more.
I went to the clinic
as often as I could...
despite Adriana's look.
He wanted to take me in his arm
but he kept rejecting me.
"Jorge", he would say, "What about Jorge?"
I began to hate Jorge.
- Do you mind if I smoke?
- No. Please.
Jealousy is a terrible emotion.
I could tell from his shoulders
he had seen us.
Awful... awful.
But in a way I was
relieved it was done.
Are you sure
your friend is alright?
Oh yes.
She is fine in the car.
We drove through the night.
Amadeu kept questioning me.
Was he searching for me
or for life?
He wanted to know
everything my whole life, like,
memories,
thoughts, fantasies, dreams...
It was relentless.
It was almost a relief when
5 km from the border
he stopped
and hid me in the trunk.
Passport.
- Why are you traveling to Spain?
- I am going to visit relatives.
Get out of the car,
please.
Keys.
Do you know
Major Rui Lus Mendes of PIDE?
What about him?
I want you to call him.
I have his home number.
I want you to tell him
your are treating me like a criminal.
He wants to talk to you.
This is Dr. Amadeu de Prado.
You are asking too much of me.
You took my life away from me.
I want it back now.
Give the phone back
to my man.
Ironic that I should
ultimately be saved...
by the Butcher of Lisbon.
That night...
we drove to Finisterra
and slept in the car.
Don't go away.
We'll take a ship
to the Amazon
to a new world
only you and I existed.
I write books...
we invent a new language
that only you and I understand.
We go up the river
as far as it takes us.
Back in time
and into the future.
The very beginning of the end.
What would I do?
You'll share it with me.
The same air,
the same feelings, same tastes...
Things that you want...
you want them for yourself,
not for me.
I want them
for both of us.
He was hungry for me,
and for life.
But the journey he wanted to take
was into his own soul
not into mine.
I cannot do it,
Amadeu.
What do you mean?
You want more
than I can ever give.
And I'm not ready.
I'm so sorry...
I have friends
in Salamanca.
Will you take me to them?
He drove me to Salamanca...
he shook my hand,
he wished me well
and left.
The next I heard,
he was dead.
I always thought I killed him.
- He had an aneurysm.
- An aneurysm?
A blood vessel
burst in his brain.
He...
He had it for a long time.
Did you go to his funeral?
You didn't really think
I would do it, did you?
It is no longer important.
So what happened to the
names and telephone numbers
you had in you head?
Lisbon
331-4518,
contact name, Carlos;
Sintra, 245-102,
contact name, Nuno...
I wrote them all down and
passed them on to someone safe.
A few months later they were
used to initiate the revolution.
Your friend must be
very tire of waiting.
- You can keep the book if you like.
- Thank you.
And probably more ready for him now
than I was back then.
- Goodbye, Raymund.
- Goodbye, Estefnia.
"We leave something of ourselves behind
when we leave a place,"
"we stay there,
even though we go away."
"And there are things in us
that we can find again..."
"only by going back there."
"We travel to our souls
when we go to a place..."
"that we have covered
a stretch of our life,"
"no matter how brief
it may have been."
This is me.
Well, we still got...
5 minutes.
Thank you for...
telling me I wasn't boring.
But when I think of their lives,
Amadeu, Estefnia,
the others,
their lives full of such vitality,
- intensity...
- So much so it broke them apart in the end.
But they lived.
Whereas my life...
apart from these
last few days...
And now you are
going back to it.
Oh, why don't you just stay?
What?
Why don't you just stay?