The older brother
Abílio
Articulate, ironic and ambitious. Between dreams of becoming a pilot, a businessman and a politician, Abílio looks for his place — and finds both a challenge and an inspiration in his younger brother.
A documentary
A film by
António Sampaio
HARMONIAS
Before the scores,
there were mountains.
Two brothers. A piano.
The memory of a country.
01 / The film
TIMOR-LESTE / JAKARTASome stories are
told at the piano.
Two brothers, aged 14 and 8, play Chopin in Jakarta carrying the name and the blood of Timor-Leste. Their father composed songs of war. Their mother dreams of seeing one of them become prime minister.
Harmonias is the portrait of a legacy that is both learned and inherited at the piano. From the practice rooms of Jakarta to the mountains of Timor-Leste, it follows Abílio and Afonso through daily discipline, brotherhood and a history larger than themselves.
Read the full synopsis
In October 1971, on the eve of leaving for Lisbon, a young man sat at night on the walls of the Aipelo prison, where his grandfather had died, and swore he would return. Almost fifty years later, his two sons play Chopin in front of the President of the Republic.
Abílio António de Araújo Jr. and Afonso Rufino Abílio de Araújo are two young pianists raised in Jakarta with roots in Timor-Leste. The older one analyses, the younger one feels. Rivals and protectors, they are finding their own way through music.
Around them are the voices of those who shaped them and those who love them: their father, composer of the FALINTIL anthem and “Foho Ramelau”; their mother, who oversees their daily practice; their teacher Esther, who insists that technique without meaning is empty; and José Ramos-Horta, who receives them at the Presidential Palace.
Between daily discipline and the weight of a history they do not yet fully grasp, Abílio and Afonso are writing their own melody. Because tradition, the film suggests, is not a burden. It is an echo.
02 / The voices
One family.
Many resonances.
The brothers, their father, the people around them. Each voice reveals another part of the story.
The younger brother
Afonso
He feels music before he explains it. Afonso drums on his knees when there is no piano in front of him and finds in the keys a way to say what he feels.
Abílio Araújo
Dato Siri Loe II · Father and composerDewi Suhandi Araújo
FeaturingEsther Rouli Christina Sitorus
Piano teacherJosé Ramos-Horta
Nobel Peace Prize laureate
“When the song is happy, I play happy.
Afonso · In the film
When the song is sad, I play sad.”
03 / At the piano
First, listen.
Two performances by the brothers at the APCS Classical Festival 2024. An encounter with the music running through their story.
Sonata in C
Abílio António de Araújo
Arabesque
Afonso Rufino Abílio de Araújo
Instrumental performances · APCS Classical Festival 2024
04 / Gallery
06Between the notes,
life.
Film credits
- Director
- António Sampaio
- Genre
- Documentary
- Languages
- English, Portuguese and Indonesian, with subtitles
- Filming locations
- Jakarta and Timor-Leste — Díli, Aileu, Aipelo and Tibar
Music · Memory · Identity