Oliveira asked Agustina Bessa-Luís to write him an adaptation of Flaubert's Madame Bovary for contemporary Portugal. The result was Abraham's Valley, the romance that served as the basis of Oliveira's script. The book and the film are very different. Comparing them is not a fruitful exercise. Fortunately, Oliveira had no reverence for Agustina's fabulous writing and used her text with total freedom.
Agustina placed the story in Douro, a most romantic and sensual Douro, "a land predestined to suffering" incomparably filmed by Oliveira. Abraham's Valley is a story of rebellion and frustration that flows through the spaces of that region: houses, palaces, gardens, vineyards and the river, to which Ema (Leonor Silveira) offers herself in the end: "You are beautiful, said the princess, but you didn't arrive in time to this place." Abraham's Valley is maybe Oliveira's most loved film. I won't dare to say it is his best. But between Vermeer's hypnotic aura and Agustina's and Oliveira's cruelty, it is certainly one of the most beautiful and provoking films ever made.
Agustina placed the story in Douro, a most romantic and sensual Douro, "a land predestined to suffering" incomparably filmed by Oliveira. Abraham's Valley is a story of rebellion and frustration that flows through the spaces of that region: houses, palaces, gardens, vineyards and the river, to which Ema (Leonor Silveira) offers herself in the end: "You are beautiful, said the princess, but you didn't arrive in time to this place." Abraham's Valley is maybe Oliveira's most loved film. I won't dare to say it is his best. But between Vermeer's hypnotic aura and Agustina's and Oliveira's cruelty, it is certainly one of the most beautiful and provoking films ever made.