This recession-age fable, which revolves around love, work, family pressures, and hidebound traditions, is set in contemporary Lisbon but breathes the air of a dreamy, timeless romanticism one that befits the long view of life taken by its hundred-year-old director, Manoel de Oliveira.
The unsecret ingredient of its rampant success was turning a dog-eared, dog-eat-dog premise into a coming-of-age story about a strong, resourceful girl, then widening it into a fable of star-crossed lovers.