O Crime Do Padre Amaro 2002 Exclusive Today

In a twist of fate that marketing dreams are made of, the attempt to censor the film backfired spectacularly. The "scandal" generated front-page headlines for weeks. What might have been a high-brow literary adaptation for a niche audience transformed into a "must-see" event for the general public. The controversy over the poster and the alleged disrespect toward the Church created a tidal wave of curiosity. When the film finally premiered, over 300,000 people flocked to theaters in the first few weeks—a staggering number for a country the size of Portugal. It became the highest-grossing Portuguese film in twenty years, second only to the monumental Capitães de Abril .

In Eça’s book, Amaro is a manipulator from the start; the 2002 film shows him as initially naive, corrupted by the system. Also, the novel’s Amelia dies from a craniotomy (a brutal fetal extraction), not a clandestine abortion. The film modernizes the crime to reflect Mexico’s real-life epidemic of illegal abortions and clerical complicity. o crime do padre amaro 2002 exclusive