A dramatisation by John Clifford of Memorial do Convento by the Portuguese writer Jose Saramago, winner of the 1998 Nobel Prize for Literature. A beguiling and soaringly imaginative blend of realism and fantasy, it is set in early 18th-century Portugal during the reign of King Juao V. As the fires of the Inquisition burn, a ragged one-armed soldier falls in love with a young woman who has the gift - or curse - of being able to look deep within the bodies of those around her. Meanwhile, a priest is building a flying machine powered by amber, sunlight, and human wills caught in bottles. And the composer Domenico Scarlatti dreams of playing his harpsichord when the machine flies through the air....
Director Patrick Rayner