O Caso Coutinho (2022)

A good short film.

As far as I remember, this was the first Portuguese short film I saw. I was drawn to it by the theme and the presence of Vítor Norte, an actor who I consider very solid and who always provides us with committed work. I don't know the director Luís Alves, which is hardly surprising if we consider that this is the third short film in his career, without a single feature film.

The script is simple and it's difficult not to "spoil" just to describe it: Coutinho, an elderly man who lives alone in his apartment on the outskirts of Lisbon, is being subjected to real harassment to leave his house and allow the start of a tourism enterprise. The man feels disturbed and persecuted. Basically, the film almost reveals and documents a deeply sad reality that happened a lot in the 2010s and that led to the emptying of urban centers (mostly Lisbon and Porto) of the last residents who still resisted leaving: the growth of tourist interest and the fierce real estate speculation are factors that motivated many owners to practically drive out these tenants, and there was at least one documented case of crime, in Porto, where a foreign investor set fire to a building to force its eviction, ending up taking to the death of a person.

The movie is very good. So good that we even feel sorry that it's only a short one. The flavor that remains in the mouth, so to speak, makes us want more, and what is given to us does not satisfy us. This is not a problem, but it is a sign that everything was done well.