April Captains

In the evening of 24 April 1974, Daniel kisses his girlfriend Rosa goodbye before boarding a train from Lisbon back to his Army base in Santarém. Rosa, fearful about the looming war, travels by tram to Antónia's flat to babysit for her daughter Amelia. The personal stakes set the emotional backdrop as the nation teeters on the brink of upheaval.

Captain Salgueiro Maia arrests the base commander at gunpoint and orders the soldiers to assemble for a parade in the middle of the night. He urges them to come with him to Lisbon to overthrow the government. The action marks the move from a local revolt to a nationwide coup.

In Lisbon, Antónia argues with her estranged husband Manuel about his atrocities during the Colonial War. She also pleads with her brother Filipe Correia, a government minister, to release one of her students arrested by the DGS, but he refuses. The scene shows how personal loyalties intersect with political acts.

Antónia returns home after the reception, unaware that Manuel is a coup plotter. The head of the DGS (Salieri) recognises Antónia and assaults her in a toilet. The personal danger underscores how the state security apparatus is entangled with the plot.

Manuel and his colleagues prepare to seize Rádio Clube Português to broadcast communiqués on behalf of the Armed Forces Movement. Simultaneously, Maia’s conspirators move into position for action. The stage is set for a televised moment of revolution.

Shortly after midnight on 25 April, the song Grândola, Vila Morena is broadcast as the symbolic signal to start the revolution. Maia's armoured column begins its march toward Lisbon, and Major Gervásio joins the rebels in a conspicuous red sports car.

Maia's armoured column reaches the Praça do Comércio in Lisbon and is confronted by a warship and tanks loyal to the regime commanded by Brigadier Pais. After a tense stand-off, defections from Pais's forces tilt the balance toward the rebels.

Ministers flee to the Republican National Guard headquarters at Carmo as rebels move into government offices in the Praça do Comércio. The coup gains control of key institutions, signaling a successful challenge to the Estado Novo.

DGS officers open fire from their headquarters, killing four people—the only fatalities of the Carnation Revolution. Virgílio, a man Manuel had trouble with earlier, is among the dead. The violence underscores the high stakes of the uprising.

Emissaries from General António de Spínola arrive to negotiate the surrender of the regime’s leaders. Spinola places Gervásio in local command and orders the arrested Caetano, Correia and others to be moved to Madeira and exile in Brazil.

The political prisoners are released, including Antónia’s lover Emílio. Manuel and Maia narrowly avoid being attacked by a crowd who mistake them for DGS/PIDE officers. The immediate danger recedes, but uncertainty remains about Portugal’s future.

Antónia and Emílio enter politics, though they pursue different paths; Manuel descends into alcoholism; Maia dies of cancer in his forties. Despite personal fates, the Carnation Revolution leads to the downfall of Estado Novo and the establishment of democracy and the rule of law in Portugal.