48

Susana de Sousa Dias (*1962) continually grapples with the legacy of fascism in Portugal in her cinematic oeuvre. The tile of her documentary 48 refers to the 48 years which the Salazar dictatorship lasted (1926–1974). It consists of official photographs taken by the PIDE secret police that show the faces of political prisoners, while the opponents of the regime seen in the images are heard in voiceover speaking today about imprisonment, humiliation and torture. Editing together archive images and witness testimonies, this minimalist concept which makes an important contribution to collective memory. (bik)