Movie “Playback” about Carlos Paião debuts in more than 50 rooms

“ Qyou're doing the story of man, not the story of myth. He was a brilliant man, an incredible lyricist”, said director Sérgio Graciano at the end of July, in the prestrea in Lisbon.

The film “Playback” includes key moments of the singer and composer’s career, such as the passage from the Song Festival, but also from personal life, such as medical training and marriage to Zaida Cardoso.

“ It is important to remember all the figures that have somehow marked our country and the people, and Carlos is one of those figures ", said Sérgio Graciano à Lusa last December, on a visit to the ‘set’ of filming.

According to Sérgio Graciano, “Playback” is not a documentary and has room for artistic interpretation: “We always have to take a poetic license to make a biography”, because “it is a reading of a writer and a director, and therefore there are people who will identify themselves and others who will not.

“Playback” is played by actor Rafael Ferreira, chosen in a casting between more than two hundred candidates.

The actor began a career in 2017, has some experiences in theater, cinema and television, but considers that this is his “first most prominent work and also a great responsibility”, for the tribute he pays to the musician.

“ I'm playing a singer who I think goes beyond generations, because I was born 10 years later, and still listened to his songs ", he reminded Lusa last December during the shoot.

“Playback” also has interpretations of Laura Dutra, Beatriz Brás, Mariana do Ó, Rita Durão, António Mortagua, Anabela Moreira and Albano Jerónimo, among others.

The soundtrack is signed by musician Paulo Furtado, or The Legendary Tigerman, who reworked the songs of Carlos Paião, with musicians who usually accompany him and also with actor Rafael Ferreira.

Among the songs by Carlos Paião chosen for the soundtrack there is an unpublished one, “Lisboa Lisboa”, that the singer never even edited and that, according to Paulo Furtado, “is a love song dedicated to Lisbon”, as he described to Lusa in July, when he played with Rafael Ferreira at the Alive festival in Oeiras.

Although there are no more announced dates for concerts about Paião's repertoire, Paulo Furtado believes that they may appear in the meantime, "still for this year".

The film is a production by Caos Calmo, has an argument by Mário Cenicante and was attended by Zaida Cardoso, Carlos Paião's wife.

Carlos Paião was born on November 1, 1957, in Coimbra, and died on August 26, 1988, following a car accident. In the middle of these two dates, there was a man who studied medicine, but who decided for the music, having composed more than two hundred songs, many of which already integrated into the Portuguese pop songbook.

He composed, among others, “Cinderella”, “Pó de rice”, “Vinho do Porto”, “Souvenir de Portugal” and “Playback”, and left the albums “Algarismos” (1982) and “Interval” (1988).

Throughout his career he collaborated with humorist Herman José – wrote him the songs of the character Serafim Saudade – and also with Amália Rodrigues, Lenita Gentil and Mysia, among other singers.