A Ferreirinha

A panegyric to the Lady of Douro, with questionable script and casting options.

Despite having had great success with some TV series, I am not a fan of Francisco Moita Flores' work. A former policeman and detective, who was also mayor of Santarém, he became a writer and screenwriter, but he is certainly still not a historian and has limited knowledge when it comes to history. This is the only way to understand the errors he has made and the way he mixes, in an arbitrary way, characters and excerpts from novels by various authors.

In this specific case, Moita Flores decided to give us a fictionalized and romanticized perspective of the life of Antónia Adelaide Ferreira. She was from a wealthy family and got married early, with António Bernardo Ferreira, her cousin, a revelry who did her the favor of dying early, in 1844. Widowhood allowed Antónia to put herself in charge of their business: her father and her husband already owned many wine estates in the Douro, and Antónia expanded the list of properties owned, building an empire that made her one of the most important wine producers in the Douro Valley, and the richest woman in Portugal. However, she never ignored the difficulties of those who worked for her: it was frequent to see her help them with their miseries and even subsidize the studies of many of her children, who formed as doctors and lawyers at her expense, when they showed an inclination to do so. Such generosity earned her the reputation of protector of the poor, and the eternal gratitude of the Douro people.

Around 1860, Antónia married José da Silva Torres, a collaborator who worked for her, which did not prevent some stories about other dalliances and relationships, including with the Baron of Forrester, an Englishman who died in the waters of Douro River, in a boat accident in which Antónia herself almost died too. Throughout her life, and always without getting directly involved in politics, she fought for the interests of the Douro,...