The man behind CUF, one of Europe's largest industrial groups.

Alfredo da Silva (1871-1942) sowed the seeds of what would become one of the largest industrial groups in Europe - CUF. António José de Almeida's documentary shows the man who built an empire, despite having faced two world wars, survived three attacks, lived in exile in Madrid and Paris, suffered the consequences of the Great Depression and was one step away from losing everything.

At a time when the country was eminently agrarian and commercial and lived far from the most industrialized countries in Europe, Alfredo da Silva set his vision in motion, going down in history as the greatest Portuguese industrialist of Portuguese the twentieth century. From chemicals to soaps, from textiles to metalworking. At the same time, it built an incomparable set of social infrastructures, anticipating the role of the State in providing unparalleled support, with schools, kindergarten, pantry, cafeterias, medical center, maternity hospital, sports group, cinema. There were those who called it a country within a country. By the time he died, Alfredo da Silva had secured the future of the companies. His legacy was amplified by his Silva Mello descendants to the point that, by the time of April 25, 1974, the CUF Group had a weight of 5% in the national GDP, at the level of the largest in Europe. But history would repeat itself, a bit like what happened to Alfredo da Silva. The descendants would be forced into exile and the group would have to collapse in order to rise again.

Five generations and 150 years after his birth, what legacy did Alfredo da Silva leave?