The Nothingness Club

Fernando Pessoa was arguably the greatest poet of the 20^th century, but the Portuguese writer was literally more than that, as he chose to compose his works as a host of authors whom he named »heteronyms«. These were not mere pseudonyms, but fully fleshed-out alter egos with their own biographies, temperaments, qualities and follies – all competing for attention in the reaches of their master’s vast mind.

With »The Nothingness Club«, director Edgar Pêra has now given Pessoa’s inner world a name and an actual space, a wood-panelled office in which identically dressed writers are battling it out on old-fashioned typewriters – each his own character, but all with the singular aim to put words on paper that delight, frighten and make sense in their absurdity. Their aims are complicated by the beautiful Ophelya, who can as easily inspire as a muse as she can create mischief as a femme fatale.

Edgar Pêra has directed this noirish journey into a complicated mind with visually stunning imagery and the strong, never-wavering hand of a visionary director. An enthralling trip into genius as well as madness.