Director Manoel de Oliveira made this film at the age of 97.
Portugal's Official Submission to the Best Foreign Language Film Category of the 80th Annual Academy Awards (2008).
This movie held the record for the longest gap between film and sequel with at least one actor returning as the same character at 39 years. It broke the record set by The Black Bird (1975) of 34 years set 31 years earlier. It's record was broken two years later by Embodiment of Evil (2008) which had a 41 year gap.