“The events and personalities of the early twentieth century--a time of tremendous social and political upheaval in Portugal--have been frequently explored in the contemporary Portuguese cinema. Conversa Acabada focuses on two giants of the period, Fernando Pessoa and Mario de Sa-Carneiro, two writers who sought to re-invent the language of modern poetry. Together, they founded a journal which openly defied government censorship and the traditional standards of a deeply conservative society. Forced to stop its publication, the two retreated further into their own private realms. Pessoa, the more famous, created his ‘heteronyms,' alter egos who wrote poetry in styles quite distinct from his own. Sa-Carneiro, the more tragic, departed to a voluntary exile in Paris where he tore his body apart with drugs and liquor while celebrating its demise in a series of unsettling experimental novels. The film is composed of their letters, their poems, and their often silent encounters. Botelho develops even further the front projection techniques pioneered by Syberberg, creating a haunting, make-believe world which his characters seem to inhabit and from which they simultaneously stand apart.” Richard Pena, The Film Center