The Cinemateca Portuguesa – Museu do Cinema is pleased to announce that the digital restoration of MUDAR DE VIDA (Change of Life, 1966), directed by Paulo Rocha, has been selected for the Cinemalibero section of the upcoming edition of Il Cinema Ritrovato, one of the world’s most prestigious international platforms dedicated to the rediscovery, preservation, and promotion of film heritage. The festival will take place in Bologna, Italy, from 20 to 28 June, with the film’s first screening scheduled for 24 June at Cinema Teatro Jolly, followed by a second screening on 27 June.
Curated by Cecilia Cenciarelli, the Cinemalibero section brings together works from different geographical and cinematic traditions that explore forms of social, political, and artistic displacement, intertwining individual and collective experiences. In her introduction to the programme, Cenciarelli highlights MUDAR DE VIDA as one of the films bearing witness to the transformations of post-war cinema in contexts considered peripheral to the dominant canon of the 1950s and 1960s. Alongside films from Greece and Turkey, Paulo Rocha’s work is identified as an expression of a realism inflected by modernist tendencies, manifested through landscape, alienation, and symbolism.
Premiering in 1966, MUDAR DE VIDA occupies a central place in the history of the Portuguese New Cinema movement. Shot in Furadouro, a fishing village near Ovar, the film follows the return of Adelino, a former colonial war veteran, to a fishing community undergoing profound social and economic transformations. Through its combination of observational realism and formal construction, the film stands as one of the most significant works in both Paulo Rocha’s filmography and Portuguese cinema of the 1960s. Adelino is portrayed by Brazilian actor Geraldo Del Rey, alongside Isabel Ruth and Maria Barroso.
The presentation of this restoration in Bologna forms part of the programme of initiatives that the Portuguese Cinematheque has been dedicating to the work of Paulo Rocha following the celebrations marking the 90th anniversary of the director’s birth, commemorated last December. Throughout 2026, these celebrations continue with screenings of his films in Portugal and abroad, culminating in December with the release of a Blu-ray edition of his complete works.