Cinema, Fascism and Propaganda. A historical approximation to the Portuguese Estado Novo

The Portuguese dictatorship of António de Oliveira Salazar used the cinema as an efficient propaganda instrument to consolidate the Estado Novo regime in the 1930s. Portugal’s National Propaganda Secretariat and other structures controlling public communication played an important role in persuading the Portuguese society and promoting a positive image of the Salazarist abroad. During the Spanish Civil War, the Portuguese cinematic propaganda intensified its campaign against communism and in favour of the Iberian fascism.