SYNOPSIS                     

One day a book by a mysterious Portuguese author falls into the hands of Raimund Gregorius (Jeremy Irons), a Swiss Latin teacher from Berne. Its author, Amadeu de Prado (Jack Huston) was a doctor in Lisbon, although he saw himself much more as a philosopher and poet. Prado’s book unleashes a culture shock in Raimund: he drops everything and catches the next night train to Lisbon to find out more about this author whose book poses the very questions that have been haunting Raimund for years: »Is there a secret beneath the surface of human activity?«, Prado asks. »And if we actually live out only a portion of what’s inside us, what happens with the rest?«

This begins a restless and enthralling search criss-crossing Lisbon — a search for the life of a perfect stranger, yet at the same time a life that feels eerily familiar in its urgent questioning – and the search for a remarkable doctor and poet, who resisted the Salazar dictatorship. In modern-day Lisbon, Raimund is successful in piecing the puzzle of this life together. It paints a contradictory and intrusive picture of a man who was as brilliant as he was torn apart. It appears that this man was too bright and too open for an everyday life characterised by the fearful silence under the dictatorship.

The night train that brought Raimund to Lisbon, can be understood as a metaphor for the life’s journey that each person must take, even those who’d prefer to remain anonymous.