Estive em Lisboa e Lembrei de Você

"I was in Lisbon and remembered you" is a Brazil-Portugual co-production, based on the book by the prized Brazilian author Luiz Ruffato. The film was directed by the Portuguese director, José Barahona, who has also written the screenplay. Barahona has been living in Brazil for the last years. This is his first feauture filme. The shooting took place in the small town of Cataguases, Brazil and in Lisbon, Portugal. "In the beginning of this project, I wanted to do a documentary film based on this book by Luiz Ruffato. However, I ended up doing a feature film with many links to documentary. I wanted to know what made Brazilians want to emigrate to Portugal. I chose working with amateur actors and non-actors in both cities, so their own life stories and experiences could be in the film. I did the other way round from the writer. He found these people and made them characters of his book. I looked for people who had similar stories to those described in the book, and made them characters of my film. When I read the book, I was seduced by its "false documentary" characteristic. The book was all written as if it was the transcription of an oral interview the writer had done in Lisbon. I decided to keep this narrative in the film, by a narration with the main character talking to the camera. It's a film about emigration. About dreams and disappointments," says Barahona.