Autumn
António Sequeira’s award-winning comedy-drama examines a Portuguese family over the course of a year.
Image courtesy of The Movie Partnership.
It is relatively rare for films from Portugal to receive a UK release yet here we have one which is the first feature to have been made by António Sequeira. Its appearance may well have been encouraged by the fact that it has won awards at festivals as far apart as Austin (an audience award) and the Asian Film Festival (best director). Furthermore, although its cast are not international names, the subject matter if hardly original certainly has potential appeal. Indeed, given what I knew of it before taking a look, I approached the film expecting a really worthwhile experience. But in the event I was sadly disappointed.
Autumn is a film which begins in that season but then proceeds to cover events involving one Portuguese family over a period of twelve months. As the writer here Sequeira has rather unusually chosen to focus most of the time on just the four family members: the father, Otávio (Miguel Frazão) who runs a farm, his wife Susana (Elsa Valentim), their 18-year-old son Tomás (Salvador Gil) and their slightly younger daughter Belinha (Beatriz Frazão). This is a time of significant change in the life of this family since Tomás who wants to become a doctor has opted to leave home and to become a student in London. We first see him on the eve of his departure and Sequeira then shapes his film by recording his subsequent return visits which take place at Christmas, at Easter and in the autumn (the summer season is noted too but only to indicate that Tomás instead of coming back home is touring around Europe). Although passing references are made to friends and acquaintances in the area they are not introduced as subsidiary characters and the only other figure with a real part to play is Gaya (Krupa Givane). Tomás meets this girl of Indian descent in England and, since she has become his girlfriend, he brings her to Portugal on his spring visit to introduce her to his family.
Since the film chooses to concentrate so exclusively on the family unit, it is vital that we viewers should identify closely with them and with their concerns. One would hope that this could be achieved quickly but I found two factors standing in the way of it. Unusually one of these was the sub-titling especially in the early scenes when we first encounter the four main characters. Normally I can take in subtitles with no difficulty at all but here they come up at speed, consist of phrases that need to be digested since the people are new to us and are accompanied by changing visuals that require attention too. It is a distraction that holds one at arm’s- length but at least it settles down later. However, the other nuisance is one that persists in that Sequeira only occasionally offers a scene without music behind it. Admittedly Tomás is presented as being keen on music (much is made of trying to locate the bongo drums which once obsessed him) but, if initially the music heard can be linked to that, its persistent use becomes self-conscious and tiresome. About midway through the film Belinha makes a sudden announcement which shocks her parents and at that point the music suddenly and happily stops, but most of the time it is plastered all over the film.
It was these elements which stood out as keeping me at a distance, but there is a sense too that Sequeira’s screenplay is less than sure-footed. A basic concern in Autumn is the need of adolescents to break away and start to make a life of their own and the impact which that can have on parents who have held them close. In exploring that theme Sequeira is clearly sympathetic to Tomás and to Belinha who will follow her brother in seeking to branch out in her own way. That his screenplay should also show an understanding for the situation of Otávio and Susana now in middle age is certainly no bad thing. Nevertheless, when incorporating their less appealing characteristics – Otávio tells jokes that are both poor and politically incorrect and does so to a degree that is revealing, Susana is an over-protective, fussy and unimaginative mother – Sequeira’s writing is uneasily pitched. He seems unsure how seriously critical of them he should be and just how much should play as comic.
The location may be pleasingly unfamiliar but the actors while competent lack any special ability to draw one in (Beatriz Frazáo, who is indeed the daughter of the actor playing her father, is the player whose personality is the most engaging). They are, of course, fighting against that persistent background music which late on extends to a couple of soundtrack songs. When it comes to the parents themselves, their problems are sketched in rather than brought to full life. A sudden abruptly inserted flashback to their younger selves is used to point up their subsequent tensions due to aging and we do hear of Susana quitting her job as a nurse and finding more satisfaction in starting up a practice of her own in alternative medicine. But this is just heard in passing talk given the decision not to bring in acquaintances outside the family. Later when the film seeks an eventual moment of unity with all four of the family dancing together it feels determinedly upbeat rather than something that has been earned. Autumn is not disastrously bad but, running at 115 minutes as the film does, I found myself viewing it without ever feeling any deep sense of concern for the people: I was sharing their lives but only distantly.
Original title: A Minha Casinha.
MANSEL STIMPSON
Cast: Beatriz Frazão, Elsa Valentim, Miguel Frazão, Salvador Gil, Sara Barradas, Ricardo de Sá, Krupa Givane.
Dir António Sequeira, Pro Anastasiia Vorotniuk and António Sequeira, Screenplay António Sequeira, Ph Anastasiia Vorotniuk, Pro Des Daniela Cruz, Joana Freire and Giulia Mazzocchi, Ed António Sequeira, Music Filipe Caetano.
Movie Monkeys/Caracol Protagonista/Kurious Studios-The Movie Partnership (UK).
115 mins. UK/Portugal. 2023. UK Rel: 2 June 2025. US Rel: 3 June 2025. Cert. 12.
