Fern Silva’s Servants of Mercy (Portugal/USA, 2010, 14m), presents a variation on portrait film, subtly showing the redevelopment and changes of Portuguese landscape and society through the prism of his families old household helper, a remainder of Portugal’s older bourgeois traditions. Fernando Pessoa’s famous poem of exile “Oh Sea, how much of your salt is from the tears of Portugal” can be heard song on the soundtrack, reflecting the gulf between the past and the present and the countries unique place on the edge of Europe. -George Clark, APEngine

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