In 2026, Cinemateca Portuguesa is continuing its work of promoting and disseminating Portugal’s film heritage through the DVD release of recently digitized works.
The first of these editions was dedicated to TORRE BELA (1977) by Thomas Harlan, released in April as part of the celebrations marking the 30th anniversary of ANIM (the National Moving Image Archive). The result of a 4K digitization and restoration project carried out in close collaboration between Cinemateca Portuguesa and the Munich Film Museum, this edition presents the version regarded by the filmmaker as the “definitive” one. Since its premiere at the Cannes Film Festival in 1977, TORRE BELA has circulated in several different versions, sometimes featuring significant changes in duration and editing, making the availability of this newly restored version particularly important.
The DVD release was accompanied by the programme The Hoe Belongs to Everyone – On TORRE BELA, which brought together films by the director, documentaries on the making of the film and Harlan’s involvement in the Carnation Revolution, as well as other works related to the occupation of the agricultural estate that gave the film its title. The programme also included a series of talks with researchers, collaborators on the film, and members of the director’s family. The edition features texts by Stefan Drössler, José Manuel Costa and José Filipe Costa, as well as previously unpublished interviews with Thomas Harlan and the film’s editor, Roberto Perpignani.
In May, Cinemateca released a second edition, this time dedicated to TRÊS DIAS SEM DEUS (Three Days Without God, 1946) by Bárbara Virgínia, a pioneering figure in Portuguese filmmaking. The first woman to direct a Portuguese sound feature film, Bárbara Virgínia was honoured as part of the Women Pioneers of Portuguese Cinema programme, through a day entirely dedicated to her work and career. The book-and-DVD edition of TRÊS DIAS SEM DEUS also marked the 80th anniversary of the film’s presentation at the first edition of the Cannes Film Festival.
As only fragments of the original work survive, the edition is the result of a meticulous process of recovery, digitization, restoration and subtitling of the existing materials. In addition to the newly restored digital version, the publication includes a range of supplementary materials, among them the original trailer — whose soundtrack has survived — and the recent documentary Esse Olhar que é Só Teu (That Gaze That Is Yours Alone), directed by Luísa Sequeira. The publication also features texts by Ana Cabral Martins and Ricardo Vieira Lisboa, as well as a facsimile reproduction of the film’s annotated shooting plan, an essential document for understanding the structure and ambition of the work at the time of its release.
With these two editions, Cinemateca Portuguesa reinforces an editorial line that seeks to connect the technical work of preservation and restoration with the production of knowledge and the public dissemination of key works from the history of Portuguese cinema. More than simple access formats, these DVDs are reference publications that preserve not only the films themselves, but also the historical, critical and material contexts that give them meaning.
These editions are available for purchase at Livraria Linha de Sombra.