Embers of Yesterday
| Embers of Yesterday | |
|---|---|
 Theatrical release poster | |
| Directed by | Xandinho Vidal |
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Running time | 140 minutes |
| Country | Quetana |
Embers of Yesterday is a 2024 Quetanan thriller drama film written and directed by Xandinho Vidal and starring Alda Correia, Calista Álvares, Teresa Moreno, Isabela Matos, and Samuel Carriço. The film is about a young woman who loses her memory after surviving a fire that kills her childhood friend. Through reading her dead friend's diary, she begins to put the pieces of her shattered life back together.
Plot
20-year-old Sara (Alda Correia) regains consciousness in a hospital after suffering severe burn injuries requiring reconstructive surgery, and she's still suffering from amnesia. She is shown photographs of friends and relatives, but she can't recognize anybody. The doctors tell her she lives in Vongane and her parents died in a car accident when she was 9. Her aunt, Valquíria (Isabela Matos), took care of her ever since, but had died sometime before Sara's accident.
Sara is discharged from the hospital, having recovered from her injuries but not regained her memory. Her aunt's personal assistant Alice (Teresa Moreno) is now her guardian and takes Sara home. A boy named Tiago (Samuel Carriço) tries to contact her, but Alice intercepts the call and tells him that Sara is not ready to meet her friends. Later, Alice tells Sara that Tiago was her boyfriend. Sara sees some photos of a friend of hers, Juliana "Jules" Law (Calista Álvares). Alice also informs Sara that when she turns 21, she's bound to inherit Valquíria's entire estate.
Among the photographs, Sara finds an envelope sent by Tiago. While Alice is distracted by a call, Sara takes a cab and goes to the address on the envelope, which turns out to be the office of Heitor Duarte, Valquíria's lawyer as well as Tiago's employer. Leaving the office before Duarte could warn Alice, Sara runs into Tiago, who invites her to his apartment. Tiago explains they had broken up the last time they met before the accident. Not remembering anything of their past relationship, Sara bonds with Tiago and they have sex. Tiago gives her the keys and address to her old flat. When Sara asks Tiago about Juliana, Tiago reveals that Juliana died in the fire, and he's surprised Sara was not informed.
At her apartment, Sara finds Juliana's suitcase which contains her letters, clothes and a diary. Sara reads the diary, learning from it the details of her friendship with Juliana. The two of them were close childhood friends who used to vacation together with their families at Valquíria's house in the South of Quetana. They casually reconnected as adults after a long gap. Since they had last met, Juliana's parents had died, with her father committing suicide. During their childhood, Sara had accidentally almost caused Juliana to drown in the swimming pool; Sara ran away scared, Juliana followed her and they saw something, which caused Juliana's mother to take her daughter away and leave her husband.
While Sara's reading Juliana's diary, Alice enters the apartment and addresses her as Juliana, which confuses Sara, pushing her to leave. She checks into a hotel and instinctively signs the registry as Jules Law. Sara continues to read the diary, chronicling the period that saw the girls spending more and more time together after they first reconnected. Sara had Juliana move to her apartment, and Juliana started obsessing over her, becoming jealous of Sara's relationship with Tiago. After Tiago and Sara broke up because of her interference, Juliana revealed to Sara that she was in love with her, but angry Sara didn't reciprocate. During this time, Juliana was also in correspondence with Valquíria, receiving a cheque from her but sending it back.
Sara starts to think that she could really be Juliana and not Sara. She visits Alice in the morning and demands an explanation. Alice reveals that she had asked Sara and Juliana to visit Valquíria on her deathbed in France. Alice had also privately told Juliana that she had read her letters to Valquíria. The girls went visit Valquíria, who was too sick to talk. They stayed at Valquíria's house, where they used to vacation. Juliana called Alice up in Vongane, who reminded her she could never be with Sara the way she wanted to, and that Sara had already ruined her life by reporting to Juliana's mother what the two girls had seen that day Juliana almost drowned: that Juliana's father and Valquíria were having an affair, which is the reason Juliana's father committed suicide.
Alice then joined the girls with the news that Valquíria had expired. Juliana finally agreed to Alice's plan: to set the house on fire and kill Sara, then go to Villorvi and undergo surgeries to make her look like Sara. The plan worked, but Juliana damaged her face and lost her memory after jumping from a window. After hearing all this, Sara seems to finally accept she is actually Juliana. Soon after, however, she's confronted by Quim, a local barman who says she still owes him. Quim recounts how he had overheard Juliana and Alice planning to kill Sara, allowing Sara to escape the trap. Hearing this triggers Sara's memory and she realizes she's still actually Sara, while Juliana really died in the fire, in spite of Sara's attempt at saving her despite everything. Sara gives Quim her expensive car to buy his silence.
Later Sara meets up with Alice, who's been to Vongane to read Valquíria's will and found out Valquíria left everything to Juliana because she felt her affair with her father had ruined Juliana's life. Upon realizing that Sara is the one who survived, Alice attacks Sara but Sara manages to drown her in the swimming pool. Sara cries and walks away to the beach and swims all night in the ocean, which is final proof she's Sara as Juliana couldn't swim. After that, she rests on the beach and awakes in the early morning and walks out to the beach with the waters.
Cast
- Alda Correia as Sara
- Valéria Gama as Young Sara
- Calista Álvares as Juliana
- Amor Bastos as Young Juliana
- Teresa Moreno as Alice
- Isabela Matos as Aunt Valquíria
- Violeta Antunes as Dr. Cesária Gomes
- Samuel Carriço as Tiago
- Hélder Carreira as Quim
- Tomé Fidalgo as Duarte