This film celebrates the life and work of Zurita de Oliveira — musician, performer, composer, and author — widely recognized as the pioneer of rock & roll in Portugal. She turned music into an act of defiance, forging a path at a time when there was little room for free-spirited women. Through songs and testimonies, the film reclaims her memory and transforms her previously unheard lyrics into a gesture of resistance, sung and performed by the women of today.
The question in the title is a provocation that raises another question posed by director Francisca Marvão: “Why erase women from History?” Zurita de Oliveira is considered the first Portuguese woman to write, sing, and record a rock song, titled O Bonitão do Rock, released on an EP in 1960, yet she remains largely unknown to the Portuguese public. Here, Francisca undertakes a process of historical recovery (and reparation) by investigating the life of a revolutionary woman. This gesture continues the director’s important body of work in rescuing women in the artistic world from invisibility, as she had done in her previous film Ela É Uma Música (IndieLisboa 2019). Surrounded by various women musicians, some of whom form bands for the film, Francisca creates a space for artistic creation where new interpretations of Zurita’s songs are performed and original pieces are composed from previously unpublished lyrics discovered during the research. It is this dimension that transforms the film into a hybrid body between documentary, fiction, and concert, constituting one of its greatest strengths. Let us walk toward a world where no one is afraid of Zurita de Oliveira. (Carlos Ramos)
