He was a filmmaker like no other, and Lupo’s most intriguing story was his own. Now, a century later, it’s time to finally tell it. A storyteller with a rebellious streak, a restless filmmaker with a sense of adventure, an ambitious dreamer in constant pursuit of new challenges, Rino Lupo never acted as society expected him to. Italian by birth, European by design, he was an extraordinary figure in film history. Lupo directed movies all over Europe during the golden age of silent film, from Rome to Paris, Berlin, Moscow and Portugal, up to his mysterious disappearance in 1934.
He was in Paris during the Belle Époque, moved to Berlin during World War I, shot erotic films in Denmark; he was in Moscow during the Communist Revolution and in Poland when the country declared independence. Lupo’s life brings together all the elements of a film: adventure, action, romance and mystery.
So I embarked on a long journey that led me to many of the same locations where Lupo once worked and lived: Paris, Berlin, Rome, Porto and Lisbon. In doing so I discovered many characters and contexts that were fundamental for the beginning of the Seventh Art.
I also had the good fortune of meeting people who, like Lupo, dedicated their lives to cinema, such as Mr Artur, a former projectionist of several cinemas in Lisbon, or Mr António, a mobile projectionist with over 50 years experience still active today. The dedication to cinema these characters personify is striking – a devotion to an artform whose death has been often announced, but that conti­nues to exist and enchant us all.

Pedro Lino