ABSTRACT
Documentaries, regardless of their artistic and creative view, and despite being different from propaganda films, are effective weapons of political struggle. The metaphor, a stylistic device so often used by journalists and documentary filmmakers, is a good example of the extent to which fiction and reality are inextricably linked. The documentary film uses fiction yet is intrinsically and inexorably linked to reality; it is a memory file with images in movement. This chapter analyzes two films, namely Hospedaria and Tarrafal. Hospedaria is a documentary directed in an abandoned inn where, although the space is pristine, the characters are absent. Tarrafal is a film directed in a space that no longer exists but where characters return to tell their stories. Hospedaria and Tarrafal contribute to build the recent history of Portugal, a country plunged in permanent crisis and where poverty and exclusion have crossed generations, usually because of wrong political decisions.
