THE END OF THE WORLD

They had quarrelled over the use of water that divided their land, a quarrel between aging neighbors, a quarrel between peasants. Then, one day, with a sudden snap of his hoe, Augusto Henriques struck Conceicao das Neves. He was aiming at her shoulder but she bent down at that very moement and he struck her on the head. Where there was a women moments earlier, there is now a corpse. Augusto is tried and sentenced to 14 years in prison, due to his age and the fact that this was his first offense. But when Augusto returns to his village on early parole, he discovers that many things have changed, that the blow he struck at Conceicao had consequences far beyond her death. Joao Mario Grilo has fashioned a simple yet emotional resonant tale, crisply shot and classically composed, that beautifully transmits an elegiac mood of time and change. In Portugese with English subtitles.