Film supported by Aveiro City Council premieres commercially
Published at — 22 October 2025
The film ‘As Aves’ (The Birds), based on a short story by Mia Couto and directed by Pedro Magano, premieres commercially this Thursday, 23 October, in 12 cinemas across the country, in a total of five cities. Among the cinemas are iconic venues such as Cinema Fernando Lopes and Cinema Ideal (Lisbon), Cinema Trindade (Porto) and Casa de Cinema de Coimbra.
The feature film ‘As Aves’ was supported by the Aveiro City Council and previewed at the Teatro Aveirense last year, as part of Aveiro 2024 - Portuguese Capital of Culture. The film portrays an isolated old man living surrounded by water. He hates the gods and vents his lamentations to a parakeet, Poupa, which he keeps imprisoned in a cage, a metaphor for his own life. However, he finds freedom in the words of the books he discovers in the library during his furtive wanderings around the city. A work inspired by Mia Couto's short story Death, Time and the Old Man, which the director combines with Aristophanes' classic play The Birds.
Pedro Magano is a native of the Aveiro region and the film was shot in this area, with much of the action taking place on the estuary. The filming schedule was planned according to the tides, in a location that was difficult to access and offered little mobility, but with enormous visual potential. The narrative is cyclical, reflecting the concept of the repetitive nature of human life and the cyclical dimension of Time as we know it.
The feature film ‘As Aves’ was supported by the Aveiro City Council and previewed at the Teatro Aveirense last year, as part of Aveiro 2024 - Portuguese Capital of Culture. The film portrays an isolated old man living surrounded by water. He hates the gods and vents his lamentations to a parakeet, Poupa, which he keeps imprisoned in a cage, a metaphor for his own life. However, he finds freedom in the words of the books he discovers in the library during his furtive wanderings around the city. A work inspired by Mia Couto's short story Death, Time and the Old Man, which the director combines with Aristophanes' classic play The Birds.
Pedro Magano is a native of the Aveiro region and the film was shot in this area, with much of the action taking place on the estuary. The filming schedule was planned according to the tides, in a location that was difficult to access and offered little mobility, but with enormous visual potential. The narrative is cyclical, reflecting the concept of the repetitive nature of human life and the cyclical dimension of Time as we know it.
