João Botelho's cinema: a Portuguese (re)reading

• Grant number: 25/19740-1
• Support Opportunities: Scholarships in Brazil - Doctorate
• Start date: January 01, 2026
• End date: August 31, 2028
• Field of knowledge: Linguistics, Literature and Arts - Literature - Other Vernacular Literatures
• Principal Investigator: Renata Soares Junqueira
• Grantee: Emanoely Cristina Lima
• Host Institution: Faculdade de Ciências e Letras (FCL). Universidade Estadual Paulista (UNESP). Campus de Araraquara. Araraquara , SP, Brazil

Abstract

This project proposes an analysis of João Botelho's cinematic transcreations of canonical works of Portuguese literature. Three of his works will be analyzed: Um adeus português (1985), Peregrinação (2017), and O ano da morte de Ricardo Reis (2020), which address, respectively, the Colonial War, the Great Navigations, and the Salazar Regime. Following the perspective of intersemiotic translation, transcreation is understood not as a faithful reproduction of the literary text, but as a creative and critical operation that mobilizes the expressive resources of cinema to reconfigure meanings and engage with the past. The research investigates the formal and narrative procedures employed by the filmmaker, highlighting how the diversity of original literary texts demands specific cinematic solutions. The analysis will be guided by theoretical contributions from Robert Stam, Linda Hutcheon, Ismail Xavier, and Eduardo Lourenço, considering the interplay between cinema, literature, memory, and national identity. The central objective is to understand how João Botelho's cinema constructs a critical reading of Portuguese history, based not on a subordinate relationship to literary tradition, but rather on aesthetic and ideological resignification. The methodology combines film analysis, intermedial study, and critical reading of literary and cinematic works, aiming to contribute to adaptation studies and to reflection on the role of cinema in the construction of cultural memory. (AU)