Alfama em Si

Municipal Officials, hanging on ladders, are installing a large set of surveillance cameras in the old neighborhood of Alfama. The dwellers sadly notice, with some nostalgia, that an entire lifestyle, typical from the neighborhood, is coming to an end. Some, the most drastic ones, are even saying everyone that "the neighborhood is dead". Nonetheless, these cameras are only a final blow. For many years, tour buses, filled with tourists, deliver their human loads on the plazas and streets of Alfama. It brought a new life to the neighborhood, but also endangered the ancient lifestyle - and there's more: EMEL (public service in Lisbon) has taken control of the parking system in the city; Fado Clubs now have menus in 5 different languages; the municipal wash-house is a relic, and is in the verge of becoming a museum; new generations are dwelling in secular houses but cannot appreciate (nor acknowledge) the old custom of talking from window to window that, as a sea of street cries, used to fulfill the neighborhood with voices floating above the passers-by. It's Progress. The destiny hanging, menacing, over the old popular streets, where (even yesterday), the varina (fish seller) walked by with her clogs, in a proud and confident pace, turning the head of the enamored dock worker. But everything comes to an end one day. It's inevitable. It's the Fado itself. (Fado also means fate). But Fado renewals, is recreated and finds new ways. It rises from the ashes, wearing new attires, yet faithful to its essence. It has been done for many times - history proves it! Fado cannot die. Nor the Neighborhood -they're both the same. Alfama: A Neighbourhood Song follows characters of Alfama, in a set of 7 stories that show different aspects of this death and rebirth: The tour guide, forced to correct the story of Mariquinhas (famous character from a Fado); the old couple that bypassed Love; the desperate man that gambles and loses everything; the conceited man that thinks he knows more about Fado than he really does; the pickpocket who apologizes for his craft; the musicologist who was forced to "swallow" an opposite opinion; the outcast who, operating outside the law, helps to preserve the old Neighborhood. These are 7 stories, and much more Fado. Altogether, we have only one story: a social reality, overlooked so many times, gathering history, tradition, culture and people into an entangled net to witch no other name better suits than ALFAMA.