Roberto is one of those men to whom simulation has become the greatest art. He is an unmoved, inscrutable, mysterious man. But the truth is that Robert feels an intimate, deep tedium. The boredom of those who have already exhausted all the pleasures of life. The only thing still surprising him is the fact that nothing surprises him anymore. One evening he has an overwhelming encounter with a woman. For his own bewilderment, he discovers the sublime horrors in which the woman has sank.

The tragic story of the many lives of Father Dinis, his dark origins and his pious works, and the different fates of all those who, trapped in a sinister web of love, hate and crime, cross paths with him through years of adventure.

The young film student Maria do Mar is working on a documentary about the old manor houses along the Douro River. It is the final project in her thesis on “Reality in Cinema”. Maria has an unlimited confidence in what is visible. Her candour and her naivety allow her to see the bright side of life – such as the beauty of the landscape and the authenticity of the place, or what’s left of it. But when Maria enters the final manor house on her list, she soon realises that something is going on in this house that is not as innocent as it first seemed. The manor is truly a house of horrors.

The film was to be a documentary, but evolved during production to a fictional film. It nevertheless adheres strictly to the poems and letters exchanged by two of the most outstanding names of the Modernist Movement, Fernando Pessoa (in Lisbon) and Mário de Sá-Carneiro (in Paris). Their endless conversation was dramatically and suddenly terminated.

◎狄德罗小说上银幕
“我们在这个世界上所遭遇的一切幸与不幸的事情都是天上写好了的”。这是法国18世纪启蒙思想家狄德罗在小说《宿命论者雅克和他的主人》中写下的著名语录，也是威尼斯竞赛片《宿命论者》中(The Fatalist)职业司机Tiago经常挂在嘴边的一句话———他每天的工作就是开车带着主人在葡萄牙四处“历险”，经历狂乱的、无尽的情爱事件。
◎影片《宿命论者》正是根据狄德罗的同名小说改编。
导演若昂·傅特略(Joao Botelho)说：“当布列松在他的经典影片《布劳涅森林的女人们》中借用了一点《宿命论者雅克和他的主人》时，他说，狄德罗的文本既强大宏壮又封闭叛逆。我对此谨记在心，在拍摄我这个时代的《宿命论者》时也传达出同样残忍的挣扎，让灵魂、心、头脑和皮肤共存。”
傅特略还表示：“当狄德罗1771年写《宿命论者雅克和他的主人》时，他头脑中想象的正是不久之后将发生的法国大革命，宣称人人生来自由平等。这部小说是幻觉的旋风，笔法、结构如此激进有力，以致让我们产生一切皆有可能的精神快感。”
转自网络

Shortly after murdering his professor, a young man encounters a sailor who offers him a position on his ship in exchange for 3 Danish crowns and his attention as he recounts his life story.