Key art for the documentary Operário Amador (Amateur Worker), by Ramón de los Santos.
In the 70s, before the Carnation Revolution, while Portugal was a dictatorship, some textile workers had the idea of founding a theatre company – the Teatro Construção (Construction Theater) – which became a reference.
In several locations in the north of Portugal, the textile industry has always been predominant and, at a time when labour laws were practically non-existent, many work accidents occurred. To bypass censorship, it was through theatre that these workers found a way to express their discontent and try to promote improvements in their working conditions.
This film gives us an intimate, raw and deeply human point of view of a remarkable period in Portuguese history: before and after the Revolution of April 25, 1974, when Portugal finally became a democracy.
Periplus, 341 Production, Peripéciɑ Teɑtro, 2024