

Letters to a dictator is a creative documentary about thousands of women who used to firmly support a totalitarian regime and who still defend it on may occasions.They grew up thinking that their dictator had served a good purpose. So what have Portuguese women of subsequent generations passed on to their children?Inês de Medeiros, a young Portuguese film maker, takes a close look at her home country and wants to find out to what degree Portugal was able to change during the second half of the twentieth century. De Medeiros starts by using a collection of letters, which are filled with confessions of faith towards Salazar; he is being honored much in the same way a religious leader would be adored.Inês gives anonymous women a voice, voices that we would not hear about. This documentary lets the audience discover the women’s personal point of view, while looking at history in a different way. In viewing this film, we may better understand the current quandary of a country that is still lagging behind compared to the rest of the European Union. In order of doing so, we must look at the values that are passed on from generation to generation.