Never before released in the US, Paulo Rocha’s debut feature The Green Years—gloriously shot in black and white—is an extraordinary and haunting coming-of-age tale. Nineteen-year-old Julio heads to Lisbon from the provinces and gets a job as a shoemaker for his uncle Raul. But when he meets Ilda, a confident young housemaid who becomes a regular shop visitor, the two begin a tentative romance until the realities of the outside world come crashing through. Winner of Best First Film at the 1964 Locarno Film Festival.