Parable of the Dead King

A reflection on Portugal and the Portuguese people, from turbulent times, from its birth to the shadows of its life and death and the consequent loss of independence. The mythical figure of Dom Sebastião is brought here ‘into the spotlight’ for the public, in episodes that reflect the intrigue and political struggle within the kingdom over whether or not to surrender the empire to Castile; the figure of the King, the role of his grandmother Catherine of Austria and that of Cardinal Don Henrique, his Masters and the People; his own personality and actions that led to Alcácer Quibir; his disappearance, the troubled succession and loss of independence that followed, giving rise to an identity matrix in our collective thinking that remains with us to this day. The relevance of our capacity for ‘waiting and suffering’ as a people and a nation, based on inquisitorial perceptions and omens, combined with that chimerical Sebastiac promise of a fifth messianic empire, emerging from the fog, from Bandarra, Pessoa, Natália, Cesariny, to the chronicle of King Sebastian and other contemporary readings. And how we have not yet managed to emerge from this mental fog.