In 1496, King D. Manuel prohibited Judaism. 400 years later, Barros Basto, a Portuguese army captain converted to Judaism, and about twenty Jewish merchants founded the Jewish Community of Oporto, in the north of Portugal.

Ivo and Tomás, two volunteered vagabonds who feed their souls of ways and great winds. From time to time they make a stop, renting their arms, the necessary time to be able to, provisions made, get on the road again. Once, with the sun at its peak and a burning heat, the desert that they are crossing seems to be endless. They run out of water… in the end of the day, without any strength left, they let themselves fall near to a dried bush. Ivo stares at the moon rising, as is saying farewell and whispering verses of a poem of a lawyer they’ve met before. It is then that he sees a far light. They set their way to that house…

“1618” is a film about the inquisitorial visit to Porto that encountered resistance from priests, ordinary citizens and the city authorities themselves, all accustomed for centuries to living alongside the Jews.