Portuguese film links landscape, history and ancient relics
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Maureen Fazendeiro’s film The Seasons portrays the Alentejo region of southern Portugal, blending images of its natural landscape with historical and archaeological research.
The Lisbon-based French director combines scenes of modern life with archival footage and stories from local folklore. The film follows an archaeological dig searching for relics, then connects this work to letters written during World War II by German archaeologists Georg and Vera Leisner.
The Leisners, who created the first record of megalithic monuments in Alentejo, wrote about their joy in discovering ancient sites alongside their feelings of displacement while living in exile. Fazendeiro uses long, flowing camera movements to show the region’s biodiversity and to move between different time periods. The Seasons offers a different approach than many environmental documentaries, focusing on connection and care rather than doom.
The film treats the landscape itself as a historical record, digging into layers of myth and mapping to understand the region’s past.
