Films

Joana lives in Aldeia Velha and is the most beautiful girl in the village. This awakens strong feelings among the villagers: passionate desire from the young men, who fight for her love — sometimes even with physical violence — and deep envy from the other women, who accuse her of being a witch pos sessed by the devil. Meanwhile, a new priest arrives in the village and chooses to defend Joana from these accusations, confronting the women, includ ing his own mother. Producer António Cunha Telles brings together two outcasts of Portuguese art — di rector Manuel Guimarães and playwright Bernardo Santareno — in this adaptation of Santareno’s play, based on a true story from Soalhães, in the Marão mountains, in the 1930s, where a young woman was burned alive by villagers who believed she was possessed.