Welcome to Portugal, 1968! António de Oliveira Salazar’s political life has reached its end after decades as the head of Portugal’s regime. That fact is known and acknowledged by everyone, except the dictator himself… That is the starting point for Our Father – The Last Days of a Dictator, the new film from Portuguese director José Filipe Costa (A Pleasure, Comrades!; Red Line). The character study, world premiering in the Big Screen Competition program of the Rotterdam International Film Festival (IFFR), is sure to make audiences reflect on the past, the present, and the future.

“The world’s longest-serving fascist dictator has ruled for 36 years over his country and its sprawling colonies,” explains a synopsis on IFFR’s website. (There are ongoing discussions among experts about whether his regime was fascist or “simply” authoritarian.) “But after a fall leaves him frail and incapacitated, Salazar is sent to the Palacete de São Bento,...