The Last Address of
Eça de Queiroz

THE LAST ADDRESS OF EÇA DE QUEIROZ

RODRIGO has undiagnosed ADHD and dreams of becoming a writer. Yet he can’t seem to put a single word on paper. Instead, he spends his days searching for excuses for his creative block and scraping by in his hometown of Curitiba, manipulating his doting mother, MARIA, and his aloof father, ZÉ — who prefers mowing the lawn all day — into giving him money. He promptly squanders it on FÁTIMA, a local prostitute.

After visiting Fátima, her spiritual healer — the indigenous seer TAINÁ — tells Rodrigo he must “follow the eagle” if he wants to fulfill his destiny. But the “eagle” turns out to be a tiny bird that, right in front of Rodrigo’s house, causes a traffic accident.

The driver flees the scene, leaving behind an injured cyclist: MIGUEL, a hypochondriac literature professor. Rodrigo offers to take him to the hospital — even though Miguel isn’t really hurt — and on the way, the professor shares his bleak view: Brazil, in his eyes, is a barbaric nation, incapable of producing great writers. Instead, he urges Rodrigo to immerse himself in the works and lives of the great Portuguese authors and visit the places where they once lived and wrote.

Taking this advice quite literally, Rodrigo forges a scholarship letter from the University of Coimbra, convinces his parents to give him their last savings, and even steals from Fátima — money she earned through years of hard work.

He sets off to Lisbon. Following the footsteps of José Saramago, Fernando Pessoa, and Eça de Queiroz, Rodrigo falls in love with MERITXEL, a confident Spanish backpacker who at first seems deeply knowledgeable about his literary heroes — but ultimately follows her own path and abruptly leaves him. Obsessed, Rodrigo begins to see Meritxel in every woman he meets.

Wasting money and losing himself in a surreal odyssey through Lisbon, Porto, and other supposedly literary landmarks, Rodrigo encounters eccentric characters such as ANTONIO, the owner of the apartment where Saramago once lived with his wife Pilar, and NAPOLEÃO, an extravagant bookbinder.

Throughout his entire journey, Rodrigo doesn’t utter a single word. As if driven by a mysterious force, he stumbles from one strange event to another — never realizing that he could take control of his own fate. Things simply happen, and he allows them to.

Along the way, the people who shaped his life reappear: Maria, his mother, blindly devoted and convinced that her son was born for greatness; Zé, his father, who has lost all faith in him; Tainá, whose cryptic prophecies continue to haunt him; and always Fátima — the prostitute, the only one who truly sees his flaws and still loves him as he is.

At last, the eagle Tainá spoke of leads Rodrigo to the house of the great Portuguese writer Eça de Queiroz. His journey comes to an end — with no book written, not even a single line, only the lost chance at true love and the belated realization that his life has become nothing more than a fragment.