Three Days Without God

Directed by Bárbara Virgínia

Shown in Cannes 1946, most of the film was lost and only 32 minutes of images with no sound survive today. An elementary school teacher, Lídia, is placed in an isolated village in the mountains and on the first day of school the doctor informs her that she will have to go away with the priest for three days. These will be the three godless days of the title, in which the young teacher will meet the lord of the hill, Paulo Belforte, who is feared by the whole village for allegedly setting fire to the church and for having tried to murder his own wife. Due to a series of misunderstandings, the villagers turn against Lídia and Belforte, to the point where at the end there is a torchlight procession to purify the diabolical events of Casal de Lobos. But all ends well, and peace is restored through (semi-)divine influence...