Forever

SYNOPSIS

Pedro has a past shrouded in mystery and a greater goal, which is to win back Clara. He was separated from his young love after a tragic event, and their encounter is almost inevitable, especially because she is engaged to his brother. The man whose life he will save.

Pedro Valente is an enigmatic man. No one knows his family, friends or past. Who is this man and where does he come from? Not even he knows the answer to this question, which goes back more than thirty years, when Pedro was still a helpless child. He grew up in Lisbon with Elias, a young priest who found him by the church door after mass on Sunday, very far from when he was born, in the beautiful Minho region. But why would his mother, who, judging from the clothes the baby was wearing was well-off, abandon her child this way? That was the mystery Elias tried to break. And he broke it, but when he found out the truth, he decided it was best to keep it a secret because it was the best for the child. And so, Pedro grew up with Father Elias and his teenage years were troubled. Nothing made sense, until he met Clara.

Clara Sampaio de Menezes was the type of girl on the opposite side of Pedro’s social spectrum. She comes from a conservative family from an old noble family from Minho who always played an important part in the Peneda mountain range. Clara’s father, Bento de Menezes, is completely against their relationship. To prove to his daughter that Pedro is beneath her, he set up a trap that would prove to be fatal. Pedro was working on a construction site and Bento instigated a fight between him and a colleague. During their fight, Pedro’s opponent slipped off the building and fell to his death. Without seeing a way out, Pedro ends up fleeing without offering Clara an explanation, breaking her heart. She returned to her native land, which she kept in her heart, far from Lisbon and the whole tragedy, trying to be reborn among the beautiful mountain landscapes. She became a primary school teacher in the beautiful village of Soajo, where she feels more alive than ever among the authenticity of the locals.

Pedro seems to have all the money in the world to make him happy, but after being separated from Clara, happiness became an unattainable mirage. The millions he makes are never enough to find a clue that could lead him back to the family that abandoned him. All of that changes when now, luckily, he finds something that ties him to the city of Braga. Father Elias is alarmed by this and heads up north with him, yet the unthinkable happens as Pedro is finding out why he was abandoned in the past – he bumps into his love. Only, as irony would have it, Clara is engaged to someone a lot closer than Pedro could’ve imagined – his own brother, Lourenço Novais. His family owns a series of private medical practices in the Braga region, a business run by their mother, Antónia. To get closer to Clara and take her from Lourenço, Pedro sets up a mesh to invest in the practices. He takes advantage of his brother’s secret gambling problem to weaken him and saves him openly from a dangerous debt collection from loan sharks. Pedro is now the hero of the day, which makes it even more difficult for Clara to stay away from her former boyfriend and ignore the love she still has for him.

Pedro’s pursuit grows more rampant each day. He has now circled and trapped Lourenço and Antónia, reaching a limit that forces Father Elias to intervene. He envisages the worst and tells him that Antónia is his mother, thinking that he couldn’t possibly hurt his own family. The shock of the discovery is overwhelming and the only thing Pedro wants to know is why he was abandoned. Yet, in his blind quest he will keep his motives hidden from Clara and could end up losing her. Pedro will therefore have to choose between the woman he loves and his own identity. But how can we love someone if we don’t know who we are?

The backdrop of this story is the city of Braga and the picturesque village of Soajo (with all its inhabitants, from the local baker to the café owner and the quaint characters that cross paths at the local community centre). This story will be governed by the Portuguese and genuine nature of the Minho region, as well as the imposing Peneda mountain range. The wonderful landscapes will allow Pedro to not only find himself and rediscover his great love but will leave the viewer awed by a part of Portugal we all want to visit.

AVAILABLE AS: Readymade
AWARDS: Venice TV Awards 2023