After the 25th of April revolution, Portugal was at a crossroads: it had a democratically elected government, but continued to struggle with the vestiges of fascism in daily life. It was in the midst of this debate about Portugal as a country that Artur Semedo wrote and directed O Rei das Berlengas, a cutting satire of the country’s history and its founding myths. Using the device of a fake documentary, the film tells the story of D. Lucas Telmo de Midões (played by the superlative Mário Viegas), the last descendent of a family lineage who tells an alternative history of Portugal, and who claims, as its redemptory mission, the independence of the Berlengas.