The protagonist of this film, Casaco Rosa, symbolizes the PIDE (Portuguese political police) inspector Rosa Casaco.

As a director, it is important for me to bring to light certain contours of the events that involved this figure, to counter his oblivion and, through an allegorical cinematic language, to record another perspective of Rosa Casaco.

The children’s universe of the narrative is used ironically to precipitate a clash of languages. If, on the one hand, the aesthetics and music transport us to a more childish reality, the actions of the coat and other characters such as the iron are cruel and immoral, without any repercussions for the perpetrators.

The film uses childish aspects, progressively giving them a darker and more serious side. As people are not used, but rather coats and other items of clothing, this imagery seems innocuous, created in the shadow of the imagery of childhood films, where everything is apparently safe.

Inside the dollhouse, everything looks new, pristine, as if they were toys that had just come out of the box.

The costumes are characters: shirts, coats, blouses, which demonstrate their role in society or their gender: the communist red shirt that holds the revolutionary pamphlets, the General’s coat that demonstrates their status and profession.

In that house everything is perfect and nothing is out of place, yet Pink Jacket makes a point of ordering it in his own way: he plays games of interest and power, undoes shirts, disposes of coats in a dark basement.

The dollhouse is the main setting, chosen because it was the family cradle, the much acclaimed home during the Estado Novo period, our homeland. A place of intimacy and security where, at the same time, hideous situations take place. In contrast to the children’s universe, the office, at the beginning of the film, is an adult space, dimly lit, where the story of Casaco Rosa, Casaco Rosa, is sent to the silence of the shelves, among many other stories.

This evokes a practice that is common in different nations, hiding domestic stories whose narrative brings shame. Limit access to these memories, entrusted to sinister men of power.

ANIMATION AND MUSIC

The process of creating an animated film is quite complex and challenging.
Unlike what happens in a real-life film, everything must be thought out and built from scratch.
One of the film’s greatest challenges was to give expression, intention, drama and grace to faceless puppets, objects and pieces of clothing transformed into characters with their own history, behaviors and personalities.

The Pink Jacket is a pink coat and the other characters are also pieces of clothing (shirts, coats, raincoats). Its interior, made up of armor with special kneecaps, allows a body language to be constructed through its manipulation and actions throughout the narrative, which takes place in a restricted space: the interior of a house.

In addition to the construction of the puppets, done in stages, costumes, armor and finally assembly, it was necessary to idealize and build each scene in the house and for each of them to create its own universe of objects/props. At the same time, devices were prepared to serve the animation, otherwise it would be a film without movement, composed of inanimate objects. The simple breathing of a shirt requires a variation of padding and an internal system to make it rise and fall.
A suitcase that is removed from inside the Pink Jacket requires the construction of suitcases of different sizes and materials until it reaches the desired size.

The bassoon is the instrument with the greatest expression in the film, given its great musical range. Like Rosa Casaco, he had a wide range of influences.
The bassoon also has the peculiarity of being an instrument that is played very quickly, just as Rosa Casaco managed to quickly escape justice.

The children’s choir reveals the Pink Jacket’s hidden history and intentions. It is the children who tell us right from the beginning that that coat is “rogue”. The lyrics are based on the textile universe and made with simple words, typical of children’s songs.