As Meninas Exemplares
- LEFFEST 2025
Synopsis
João Botelho adapts the Countess of Ségur's trilogy of children's books — Sophie's misfortunes, the exemplary manners of Madeleine and Camille, and a summer of holidays that unravels a few old mysteries — as a study of how a child is taught to obey. Paula Rego had agreed to design the sets and costumes when the project was first conceived, back in 2001; it stalled for two decades, and she died in 2022, before shooting began. Botelho made the film anyway and dedicated it to her: the gestures, the postures, the way the girls hold themselves come straight out of her paintings.