Between April and Fear

On April 10, 1976, on the eve of Portugal’s first legislative elections after the April Revolution, my grandfather filmed the streets of Porto covered with political murals and a rally at the INATEL Stadium, where Álvaro Cunhal called for a left-wing majority. Fifty years later, these images become the starting point for a reflection on Portuguese democracy: its possibilities, its limits, and the fear of the erasure of hard-won achievements. Between the promise of revolution and the threat of rollback, the film questions democracy as a process never completed, never guaranteed, and always dependent on collective vigilance: at the ballot box, within institutions, and in the streets.