Ala-Arriba! (1942)

Finally, EFSP has a post on a Portuguese film. Ala - Arriba! (1942) is a Portuguese ethno-fictional fishermen drama by José Leitão de Barros. The film was scripted by Alfredo Cortez, and produced by Tobis Portuguesa. The script was based on the book 'O Poveiro' by António dos Santos Graça, set in the Portuguese fisher town of Póvoa de Varzim. All the actors were real fishermen. Ala - Arriba! was the first Portuguese feature to win an award at the Venice Film Festival.


Portuguese postcard by Edição Luso Brasileiro, no. 1 of 10. Photo: Tobis Portuguesa. Chibanta in Ala - Arriba! (José Leitão de Barros, 1942).


Portuguese postcard by Edição Luso Brasileiro, no. 2 of 10. Photo: Tobis Portuguesa. Domingos Gonçalves as João Moço and Elsa Branca-Flor (IMDb indicates the actress as Elsa Bea-Flor) as Julha in Ala - Arriba! (José Leitão de Barros, 1942).


Portuguese postcard by Edição Luso Brasileiro, no. 3 of 10. Photo: Tobis Portuguesa. Domingos Gonçalves as João Moço in Ala - Arriba! (José Leitão de Barros, 1942).


Portuguese postcard by Edição Luso Brasileiro, no. 4 of 10. Photo: Tobis Portuguesa. Elsa Branca-Flor as Julha in Ala - Arriba! (José Leitão de Barros, 1942).


Portuguese postcard by Edição Luso Brasileiro, no. 5 of 10. Photo: Tobis Portuguesa. Elsa Branca-Flor as Julha in Ala - Arriba! (José Leitão de Barros, 1942).

A faithful portrait of a community

The subtitle of Ala - Arriba! (José Leitão de Barros, 1942) is A epopeia dos pescadores Poveiros (The Epic of the Fishermen of Póvoa). Poveiro also refers to the type of vessel used by the fishermen of Póvoa in the North of Portugal, with a wide flat bottom, curved stem and a deep helm. Most notable was the Lancha Poveira, a large vessel used for hake-fishing. The main film title refers to the yell used when pulling the boat ashore by human power.

The film moves between fiction and documentary - markedly fictionalised. A romance unfolds between João Moço, a fisherman from Póvoa de Varzim, a sardines fisher, and Julha, a young woman from an enemy fisherman family. Both were played by actors. Their romance adds a touch of 'Romeo and Juliet' to the story. The story is marked by social differences and the drama of the lack of fish. The film illustrates local customs and the sea is the protagonist, who provides but is also a threat.

The screenplay was written by the prestigious playwright Alfredo Cortez, who based the script on the work ‘O Poveiro’ by António dos Santos Graça. The film is a faithful portrait of a community, played by real fishermen, who speak with their characteristic accents. Ala - Arriba! shows genuine experiences and the suffering of the people of Póvoa de Varzim. They are united in a strong community, but also a closed, disunited community. They are divided into different social castes. The story centres around a love story between a lanchã girl and a sardinian. The life of the people of Póvoa has a tragic dimension, as do those of Nazaré, whose traditions are unmistakable.

Ala - Arriba! is a semi-documentary. The striking facial contours of the fishermen are effectively staged in the high-contrast light of the black-and-white film. These images are an essential feature of the work and reinforce its archaic authenticity. In addition to telling a dramatic love and family story, the film is a documentation of the reality of the fishermen's lives, shown here as an example in Póvoa de Varzim. The film was financed by SPN (Secretariado da Propaganda Nacional – National Propaganda Bureau) of the Ministério das Obras Públicas (Ministry of Public Works) during the conservative Estado Novo period. The town was seen, by the regime, as an example of Portuguese culture.

In its realist style, its use of local amateur actors and local dialects, and its search for the archaic, the film is related to earlier and later realist fishermen ethnofictions such as Robert Flaherty's Man of Aran (1934) and Luchino Visconti's La terra trema (1948). The film builds on Leitão de Barros's earlier fisherman drama Maria do Mar (1930), shot at the Portuguese fishermen's village of Nazaré. In 2003, Ala-Arriba! was released on DVD by Lusomundo, with additional short films and newsreel reports by director Leitão de Barros in the bonus material.


Portuguese postcard by Edição Luso Brasileiro, no. 6 of 10. Photo: Tobis Portuguesa. Tio Augusto Bô in Ala - Arriba! (José Leitão de Barros, 1942).


Portuguese postcard by Edição Luso Brasileiro, no. 7 of 10. Photo: Tobis Portuguesa. Madalena Vilaça as Cigana and Domingos Gonçalves as João Moço in Ala - Arriba! (José Leitão de Barros, 1942).


Portuguese postcard by Edição Luso Brasileiro, no. 8 of 10. Photo: Tobis Portuguesa. Ilidio Rocha Silvestre as Tio Saramago (Uncle Saramago) in Ala - Arriba! (José Leitão de Barros, 1942).


Portuguese postcard by Edição Luso Brasileiro, no. 9 of 10. Photo: Tobis Portuguesa. Domingos Gonçalves as João Moço in Ala - Arriba! (José Leitão de Barros, 1942).


Portuguese postcard by Edição Luso Brasileiro, no. 10 of 10. Photo: Tobis Portuguesa. Chincha in Ala - Arriba! (José Leitão de Barros,1942).

Sources: Wikipedia (English, German and Portuguese) and IMDb.