Ten adaptations of Portuguese literary works, directed by ten female directors, shot in ten municipalities: such is the concept behind Told by Women, a co-production by Ukbar Filmes, RTP1 and Krakow Film Klaster. A project which, according to producers Pandora da Cunha Telles and Pablo Iraola, is an “unprecedented empowerment program that will allow ten talented professionals to reach national and international markets.” According to Ukbar’s press release, this is also an attempt to enrich the market “with dynamic audiovisual works,” whilst also trying to fix “the asymmetry” experienced by female directors when trying “to access the audiovisual field.”

Actresses Anabela Moreira, Ana Cunha, Cristina Carvalhal, Daniela Ruah and Maria João Luís, producer Sofia Teixeira Gomes and directors Diana Antunes, Fabiana Tavares, Laura Seixas and Rita Barbosa accepted Ukbar Filmes’ challenge to direct these television films that represent what the producers call a “time travel through the 20th century, with ten appealing stories for national and international audiences, where we’ll see a dramatic, comical, historical, natural but mainly authentic Portugal.”

Through this female gaze and on this journey, viewers will be able to uncover literary works from Soeiro Pereira Gomes, Maria Acher, Bernardo Santareno and Carlos Oliveira, Maria Judite de Carvalho, Teolinda Gersão, Ondjaki, Mário Zambujal and Mário de Carvalho. Each film will have a specific shooting location at the centre of Portugal: Ovar, Oliveira do Hospital, Guarda, Alcobaça, Cantanhede, Miranda do Corvo, Covilhã, Torres Vedras, Tomar and Ferreira do Zêzere. A geographical choice made due to the region’s “historic, cultural and landscape diversity, that these television films required.”

Set to premiere on RTP1 by this year’s last trimester, the project is also clearly aimed at the international markets, with the use of 4K cameras, targeting technology for special effects and digital production techniques used in order to create richer environments, which could better attract interest in bigger territories or from international streaming platforms. Thanks to the co-production with Krakow Films Klaster, the project will benefit from the use of digital production techniques “still unprecedented in Portugal, as well as the access to a market of 80 million people.”