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Cinema was crucial in portraying Portugal as a multicontinental nation. Films such as Feitiço do Império (Spell of the Empire, 1940) and Chaimite (1953) depicted African colonies as civilized, Christian territories where colonized subjects were portrayed as docile and grateful for Portuguese rule. Popular Genres and the "Golden Age"
While overt propaganda existed, such as A Revolução de Maio (1937), the regime more often favored the . This genre focused on lighthearted contemporary life to distract the populace from political realities.
Films often idealized the Portuguese countryside as a bastion of age-old customs and strict social hierarchies. Movies like A Canção da Terra (1938) portrayed rural life as humanity's true calling, contrasting it with the perceived corruption of urban centers.
Under the direction of and the National Propaganda Institute ( Secretariado Nacional de Propaganda ), the state utilized film to construct a curated national identity. This "staging" operated across three primary thematic pillars:
Often cited as the beginning of the Portuguese "Golden Age," this musical comedy established a template for commercial success.
By the early 1960s, the stagnant official style began to face challenges. , a towering figure in Portuguese Cinema , directed Aniki-Bóbó (1942), which featured a realist style that predated Italian neorealism. This shift eventually led to the Cinema Novo movement of the 1960s, which sought to strip away the regime’s artifice in favor of gritty, social reality.
The regime sponsored historical films to foster a "spirit of unity". Notable examples include biographies of national figures like Camões (1946) and Bocage (1936), which reframed historical poets as heroes of the state.
