Carlos Saboga, a notable personality in the history of Portuguese cinema over the last six decades, especially in the specific area of screenwriting, has died. The news was confirmed by Leopardo Filmes, owned by producer Paulo Branco, with whom he has had a long professional collaboration.
Born in Figueira da Foz, on December 17, 1936, he died last Friday, in Paris — he was 89 years old. His departure to France, in leaps and bounds, without documents, took place in 1965, accompanying a French crew that had come to film in Portugal. He also lived in Italy and Algeria, eventually settling permanently in Paris.
When he participated as a judge at LEFFEST, a biographical note presented him as “selected here and there in various competitions and festivals of various sizes”, as such “rarely rewarded” and “without diplomas”. It was an ironic but assertive way of defining his paradoxical status: on the one hand, a relatively absent figure in the media exposure of Portuguese cinema; on the other hand, a writing professional who left the singularities of his style in emblematic moments in the history of this cinema.
With multiple activities as assistant director, journalist, film critic and translator, he collaborated, in various roles, on titles such as The Young Dead(1965) by Frenchman Claude Faraldo, or The Stone in the Mouth (1969) by the Italian Giuseppe Ferrara. His debut in Portuguese production was as a screenwriter for The Place of the Dead (1984), by António-Pedro Vasconcelos, whose public impact gave it a mythological dimension shared by rare films of Portuguese production.
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