Doroteia (2023 film)

Doroteia
Theatrical release poster
Directed by	Nico Mata Branco
Written by	Raül Lafragueta
Screenplay by	Joel Gómez Carlos Freire
Produced by	Emanuel Vega Raimon Homedes
Starring	Jacinta Olona Érico Silvestre Balboa Nico Mata Branco José Antonio Bermúdez Beatriz Faria Gil Florencio
Cinematography	Marcelinho Martins
Edited by	Marcos de Freitas
Music by	Salomé Nascer Gonsalves
Production company	Oriental Studios
Distributed by	Oriental Studios (Paretia)
Release dates	1 October, 2023 (Montecara) 12 October, 2023 (Worldwide)
Running time	176 minutes
Country	Paretia
Languages	Luzelese Esmeiran Visegan Tosuton Gaullican
Budget	€18 milliion

Doroteia is a 2023 Paretian surrealist psychological horror film directed by Nico Mata Branco, written by Raül Lafragueta, starring Jacinta Olona, Érico Silvestre Balboa, Nico Mata Branco, José Antonio Bermúdez, Beatriz Faria, and Teodoro Rosaria. The story follows Doroteia, a widowed fado singer from Balho, a town on the outskirts of Herança in 1945 Paretia during the Etrurian Occupation. She seeks revenge on the occupying forces for killing her husband, and willingly offers herself to a spirit to do so. As she further enacts revenge her past and secrets are slowly revealed.

Plot

The film begins with a montage of Etrurian troops invading Paretia in 1944, a vision of a woman holding a man's legs after being the man was hanged is seen, this is Doroteia (Olona) and her husband, who was hanged by Etrurian forces for reasons unknown to the viewer. It then cuts to a woman singing in a theater, but it is not Doroteia, the woman is Anita Luz (Faria), Doroteia watches her with an angry and jealous face in the upper seating. Doroteia cries, the tear on her face begin to slow down and stop, as it does Anita and the audience vanish, and another Doroteia appears on the stage. This one speaks in a whisper, but the whispers are loud enough to be heard by Doroteia in the audience. She says that she is "O Espírito". She tells her to leave and go home, she repeats this for a while until Doroteia, troubled and confused, leaves. When she exits the theater everyone is in the streets as if nothing strange happened inside, behind is her boss, a Tosuton named Lluís (Samulla), he asks her where she is going, as if he didn't vanish inside the theater. She goes home.

The next scene is an Etrurian soldier, named Sgt. Pietro Paterniti (Silvestre Balboa) in a truck with others headed to the town of Balho outside of Herança, to support the occupation. He gets out of the truck when they reach the town, it is 1945, the town has been occupied for nearly a half of a year. Pietro meets his commanding officers at a garrison in the town's hotel, them being Lieutenant Nicolò (Rosaria) and Colonel Valerio Caputo (Bermúdez). He also meets Pompeani (Gusmão), an Etrurian war photographer who is resting in the town. Caputo invites Pietro and others to the town's cafe. Meanwhile, Doroteia is knees down on the floor before O Espírito, who then covers her in a red drape, she then removes it, taking Doroteia to a realm of pure gold, she tells her she will help her have the strength to get revenge on those who killed her husband, Ronaldo. She accepts this, laughing. She wakes up with her friends knocking on her door, Rebeca (Vieira) and Pilar (Ibañez) ask her if shes okay, Doroteia says that she forgot to turn off her furnace at home. Rebeca invites her to the cafe, she accepts.

At the cafe, Valerio, Pompeani, and Pietro go back to the garrison. Nicolò stays and flirts with the waitress. Doroteia and her friends arrive, she sees Nicolò at the table, she recognizes his face as the man who physically hung her husband. She sits down and closes her eye, Nicolò leaves with the waitress. Doroteia begins to shake her cup of tea, Rebeca asks if she's okay. After she returns home from the cafe she sits down and grabs a piece of paper with O Espírito talking in her mind. She tells the spirit the names of those responsible for her husband's death, Nicolò, the man who hung her, Anita Luz, who is a collaborator with the Etrurians who reported Ronaldo to her, Pompeani, who filmed the execution, Valerio Caputo, the commanding officer who approved it, and numerous others. She is interrupted by her neighbor Gil, a friend of her husband, who tells her Rebeca told him of her acting strange today, he helps her calm down after crying from being reminded of her husband and tells her that one day "there will be light again" and leaves. When she returns to writing down names, she writes down Gil.

The next day Lieutenant Nicolò sees Doroteia at the inn, where she wants over to him and he begins to fall for her charms like he did with the waitress. They walk together down the main street, he tells her that that he's sorry for what happened to her husband. They reach here house where they have sex, during this, Doroteia goes back and brings out a red drape, and covers Nicolò in it. When it's lifted Nicolò is tied down and dead. The next day Pietro is told that Nicolò has gone missing, a letter was placed in the garrison saying he had gone AWOL and quit the army. Pietro does not trust the letter, but the handwriting is authentically Nicolò's. At the same inn, Doroteia meets another Etrurian soldier and takes him home, she performs the same act as before. She does this three times to three different soldiers. The last one shows her inside a white void she yells "I am Andrasta!" before stabbing a tied down soldier. Panic begins to take hold for Etrurians who quit in fear of being killed, Pietro tries to convince Valerio to let him investigate.

She goes to threatre where she sings again, her boss says she has suddenly gotten a more beautiful singing voice than before. He asks her to perform together with Anita, they sing together on stage. Doroteia stares into Anita's eyes. Afterwards it shows the two having sex at Doroteia's house, shes asks Anita why she collaborated with the Etrurians and outed her husband. Anita responds "So we can be open for the taking." Doroteia smiles and response with "Of course, as the rumors said". Doroteia begins to perform the same act again, here it shows what happens in the drapes. Anita is taken to a white void where she cannot move because she is tied down. A stage sits in front of her with Ronaldo's dead body, but he has a knife in his chest, and Doroteia singing next it. Anita takes this as part of the sex act, but then she realizes something isn't right. Doroteia takes out an Etrurian pistol and aims it at Anita, she tells her "Why!" and shoots her.

The next scene Pietro talks to the owner of the Inn about the last whereabouts of Nicolò. He says he never saw such a man at the bar. Pietro while at the bar meets Doroteia, she begins to talk to him and he seems interested in her, but O Espírito notices he is not easy to manipulate like the others and that he must take time. Doroteia returns home and talks to O Espírito while dancing with her, or own self. She says "How long will this act go one for Doroteia?". Pietro is outside and sees her dancing with no one through the window and asks if she's okay. He tells her Anita is reported missing and Lluis asked for Doroteia to sing for everyone, she asks Pietro to come and bring friends. He brings Valerio, Pompeani and Juno (Sequeira), Valerio's daughter. She sings, Pompeani and Juno fall in love with each other to her singing. They go to a back alley and kiss, they unknowingly go into Doroteia's house. Doroteia follows them and while they are the floor she covers them in drapes. O Espírito says "This is getting way too easy Doroteia, this has be a trap", she kills them anyways. The next day, Juno's hung body sits in the street with Pompeani missing. Valerio blames Pompeani and begins a search for him. Pietro goes to the alley where the two kissed and finds Pompeani's badge in front of Doroteia's house, he begins to be suspicious.

Valerio tells Pietro he is going to his car to relax for a moment, as he had just experienced the loss of his daughter. He finds that his car has been moved and parked in front of Doroteia's house, confused, he and opens the front door and sees Doroteia standing naked. She successfully uses his grief against him and seduces him. She performs the same killing act on him, but Valerio nearly breaks free of his trap and escapes the drapes, as he runs to the door, on his way he sees the body of Pompeani and even Gil, he goes to the door and opens it but he is shot in the back by Doroteia. At the door is Lluis, who she thens shoots as well. But as he is shot he falls forward with a knife in his back. Confused, Doroteia starts to go mad. She begins to repeat to herself "Is it me?"

Doroteia sees blood spontaneously form on her hands, the filter of the film turns into a blood red as well. It cuts to Pietro waking up the next day trying to find out what happened last night, he goes to Doroteia's house. He opens the door to see Doroteia, he asks where her husband is, she tells him that he hung him. Confused, Pietro asks if he hung himself, she responds saying that he hung Ronaldo. But then corrects herself, saying that Ronaldo committed suicide months ago. She asks him to walk in, the filter changes from red to normal, with dead bodies appearing when it goes to red, showing Doroteia's delusions of her house being empty of dead bodies. Pietro knows full well now that she is the killer, but also sees that she is experiencing delusions, she gives him her hit list, on it is his name and numerous others. Pietro reads "I didn't do it!" at the bottom of the paper. The two have a conversation at her dinner table, Pietro takes out his gun, but so does Doroteia. Pietro makes a realization after numerous questions that he himself is a delusion of Doroteia, he gets up and yells at Doroteia, telling her she is responsible for her husband's death, he tells her that she is only having delusions and that her house is full of dead bodies.

When he tells Doroteia this, she shoots him in the head. When he falls to the ground all the delusions dissapear and a house full of bodies forms. Doroteia sees her other form, O Espírito walk up to her with a noose. She asks her to sing, Doroteia begins to sing a Fado tune. She sees her husband's body with a knife in his back, Doroteia then sees a photograph with Ronaldo and Anita together in an alleyway. She continues to cry while she continues to sing. She takes a knife and stabs O Espírito, who fades away as she stabs her, she whispers to Doroteia one more time, "It was fun while it lasted, but times up". Dorotia sits on her knees on the floor of her house crying, she sees herself stabbed in the spot she stabbed O Espírito, the rest of the dead bodies fade away, leaving her body alone in her house.

Cast

Jacinta Olona (Doroteia)

Érico Silvestre Balboa (Pietro)

José Antonio Bermúdez (Valerio)

• Jacinta Olona as Doroteia Moreno/O Espírito, a widowed fado finger from Balho, outside of Herança. She seeks to get revenge on the occupying Etrurian forces who killed her husband
• Érico Silvestre Balboa as Sgt. Pietro Paterniti, a soldier in the Etrurian army that is stationed in the town of Balho, he begins to investigate Doroteia and the mystery surrounding her
• Nico Mata Branco as Gil, Doroteia's neighbor who tries to help her out during her difficult times of lament and sorrow, he was her husband's best friend
• José Antonio Bermúdez as Colonel Valerio Caputo, a commanding officer who leads the Etrurian forces in the town of Balho, responsible for ordering the killing of Ronaldo, Doroteia's husband
• Beatriz Faria as Anita Luz, a Paretian fado singer and collaborationist with the occupiers, she told soldiers about Ronaldo's treachery
• Teodoro Rosaria as Lieutenant Nicolò, an Etrurian soldier who is the first of many to fall in love with Doroteia
• Gil Florencio as Ronaldo Moreno, the husband of Doroteia who was executed by Etrurian soldiers

The film also features Graciana Nascimento Sequeira as Juno Caputo, daughter of Colonel Valerio, Jacint Sumalla as Lluís, Tosuton owner of the Voz Grande Theatre and Doroteia's boss, Artur Gusmão as Pompeani, a reporter from Etruria, Elisabete Vieira as Rebeca, the best friend of Doroteia, Teresa Ibañez as Pilar, another friend of Doroteia, Eduardo Soto Enríquez as Sérgio Moura, retired police chief of Balho who helps Pietro, it also includes Natanael Freire, Eustaquio Coutinho, Júlia Mata, and Brígida Daunís as other townspeople. Other roles include locals from Herança playing citizens in the streets or Etrurian soldiers.

Production

Soundtrack

Doroteia (Original Film Soundtrack)
Soundtrack album by Salomé Nascer Gonsalves and Marta Bairos
Released	1 October 2023
Recorded	2022–2023
Studio	Zolia Recording Studio, Ocerto
Genre	surrealist, fado, jazz
Length	tbd
Label	Reycarli

Tracklist

No.	Title	Length
1.	"Paretia, 1945"	tbd
2.	"Dark Fado"	tbd
3.	"The Spirit"	tbd
4.	"The Sergeant"	tbd
5.	"Naming Them"	tbd
6.	"The Red Drapes"	tbd
7.	"I Am Andrasta!"	tbd
8.	"Anita and Doroteia"	tbd
9.	"Unravelling"	tbd
10.	"Dead Soldier"	tbd
11.	"Kill More"	tbd
12.	"Is It Me"	tbd
13.	"I Didn't do It"	tbd
14.	"Blood Fado"	tbd
15.	"Theme from Doroteia (Credits)"	tbd

Themes

Scenes like with red filter likely signify the "truth"

Director Nico Mata Branco does not give an explanation on the film's motive or meaning, and leaves only hints for the audience to understand it themselves.

In an interview he gives 5 hints to the film's meaning:

• The importance of Gil
• Red vs normal scenes
• Is the void real or not
• Is the spirit real or not
• Why is there a knife in Ronaldo