Fragile as the World

Vera and John are two teenagers in love. Apparently, their life does not present them with any problems. They both have family and friends who love them. As the teenagers that they are, their whole life has been defined by others. The couple feels they have no space, and especially no time, to live their passion. Besides being busy with their studies, their homes are far apart. But the biggest problem is that they feel that their own time does not allow them to love each other. Trying to define their future, Vera and João start an escape plan. With the same innocence with which they participate in a children's game, they flee from their homes, and move away from their land. The couple isolates themselves in a forest. There, they make a pact: they will never be separated "for anything in this world." Vera tells John a secret that she had never revealed even to her family. She describes an experience, memory or imagination, from when she was a child. She found herself in danger, trapped in a place with no way out. With all her faith, Vera asked Mother Nature to open a crack that would allow her to get out of there. A giant rock moves, freeing her. Upon hearing the story, João believes her. A bond of complicity between the couple and union with the Nature of the forest gradually becomes more intense. But Vera, on the other hand, begins to feel weaker and eventually falls ill. João finds himself in a dilemma: on the one hand, he does not want to break the pact that they will not be separated "for anything in this world," but on the other, he wants to leave her alone to go for help. He carries her and they lay on a boat. Many years later, a child sees them laying in the boat, she suspects they're dead but cannot confirm. The child tells her mother and she tells her to go to sleep. == Cast ==

Development Gomez became interested in the concept of the film after reading an article in 1993 about the suicide of a couple. In her words: When developing the story into a screenplay, Azevedo Gomes integrated fragments of literary texts by poets like Agustina Bessa-Luís, Cecília Meireles, Luís Vaz de Camões, Rainer Maria Rilke, and Sophia de Mello Breyner Andresen, whose verse "Terror de te amar num sítio tão frágil como o mundo", from the poem Terror de Te Amar, gives the film its title. In addition to these literary inspirations, particularly for the protagonist's grandfather, used references from the cinema of Carl Theodor Dreyer. With small production means, Gomes started the preparation of "Fragile Like the World" on her own. When Paulo Branco joined the project, most of the pre-production (such as casting, retakes, and props) had already been done by the director. About recording locations, Gomez recalls that "I used to talk to forestry service directors - and everything in Sintra is paid for at the price of gold, and I didn't pay a penny, Paulo didn't pay a penny, because I did everything myself, (...) I got all the décors there for free". Post-production The filmmaker's intense involvement extended into the post-production phase. Besides the transition to black and white, the lack of direct sound forced the dubbing of the characters by the actors and the subsequent composition of environmental sounds. In her words: The sound problems also triggered new dialogue rewrites, in addition to the inclusion of a poem, Menina e Moça, by Bernardim Ribeiro, which led to the invitation to filmmaker Mário Barroso to interpret it as narrator. == Themes ==

For Gomez, cinema is the territory of communion of poetry, of reality or memory, of nature and dream: "cinema is the right place to represent the coexistence of stones and ghosts". == Release ==

Frágil como o Mundo was released in Portugal by Atalanta Filmes, having its premiere in July 20, 2001, in the King (Lisbon) and Charlot (Oporto) cinemas. Atalanta Filmes would also publish Fragile as the World in VHS. In France, the film hit the theaters on August 25, 2002, through Gémini Films. ==References==