Second Hand

Dora divides her time between her work as a beautician, her policeman husband António, and her involvement in left-wing politics. A tale of love and how we must learn to cherish it against all odds in the pursuit of happiness.

An authentic and convincing story of a small boy, son of a disrupted young couple, with all the typical hostile reactions about his mother's new love relationship and a behavior showing a mixture of love and resentment towards her, ending in a curious and somewhat moving friendship between the child and a Russian migrant worker who in a certain way replaces his estranged father.

«My grandma had a great strength and love for life which made me believe that some of us were able to become immortals and escape death. When she passed at the age of 92, her death was a surprise to me, which I was not prepared for. The cinema has the immense power of creating the illusion of life and its protection. This film is my attempt to rescue my grandma from death. It is not a documentary about my grandma but a film with my grandma. I wanted to film a ghost and then return it to the realm of the living, like Orfeu tried with Eurídice. It is a route to resurrection. It is my way of giving her immortality which I deem to be her right.»