Tell Me How it Happened

TELL ME HOW IT HAPPENED

Reliving the recent past...

Reliving the recent past... The story takes place at the start of 1968 all the way through April 25th, 1974, showing us the Lopes family (António, the father, Margarida, the mother, Hermínia, the grandmother, Toni and Isabel, the older siblings) through the eyes of their youngest son, eight-year-old Carlitos who, with the help of his older self narrating, reminds us of how it was to live in Portugal at a time where society was still very much closed on itself.

On the day the country was celebrating the carnation revolution, the Lopes family traded their humble home in the projects for an apartment and a more comfortable life in Benfica. By the 1980s, the decade when Portugal became a member of of the EEC and, in many ways, started turning into the country we see today, the Lopes family grew with the arrival of Susana, a 13-year-old girl who António and Margarida adopted as a child, as well as Simão and Vítor, Toni and Isabel’s respective children, who were all grown by now.

Some more independently than others, they all made a life for themselves in and around Benfica, welcoming their cousin Zé to the core family. Having returned from France following the French revolution, he’s the embodiment of the Portuguese jack of all trades who, in his good-natured way, sees António as a role model and a big brother. Carlos, who is 23 by now, keeps on guiding us through his family’s stories, as well as the social, economical and political events that defined the 1980s in Portugal and across the World. As he grows, his stories come alive and colourful, just like what happened to TV in the 1980s.