Autumn is a political “thriller” about the covert operation of the assassination of Presidential candidate Humberto Delgado, carried out by the PIDE (the fascist Portuguese regime’s secret police) in February of 1965 in the Spanish boarder town of Villanueva del Fresno. The story is inspired by actual events, some of which were recently discovered by Frederico Delgado Rosa, the grandson of General Humberto Delgado as well as his official biographer, in his published book “Humberto Delgado: A Biography of the Fearless General.”

The action takes place in Portugal, Spain, Algeria, Morocco, France and Italy, from 1964 to 1981, beginning with the preparation of the operation carried out by the PIDE, which was code-named: Operation: Autumn, and leading up to the Court case that exposed and denounced the culprits, well after the 25th of April Revolution.

The story is told from various points of view, in a reconstructive puzzle based on one of the most dramatic acts of political violence ordered by the old regime and demonstrates that Humberto Delgado was actually beaten to death, and not shot at gunpoint, as had been previously believed.

Beyond the General himself and his Brazilian personal secretary, Arajaryr Campos, the film follows several characters in the story, including: the sinister Mário de Carvalho, a swindling “diplomat” residing in Rome; the PIDE agents Rosa Casaco, Casimiro Monteiro, Ernesto Lopes Ramos, Agostinho Tienza, Silva Pais and Barbieri Cardoso; the regime’s dictator, Antonio de Oliveira Salazar; the Oppositionists Emídio Monteiro and Henrique Cerqueira; the leaders of the Patriotic Front in Algiers, Piteira Santos and Tito de Morais, and the Spanish judge Crespo Marquez.