‘Love Letters from a Portuguese Nun’ was directed in 1977 by Spanish film-maker Jesus Franco (known internationally as Jess Franco) and adapts for the screen the letters that Mariana Alcoforado is said to have written during her time in a convent. What remained of these letters was very little, giving way to a story full of eroticism and violence, where there is no shortage of satanic nuns and merciless inquisitors.

A co-production between Germany's Ocidential and Switzerland, it was filmed in locations such as the Jerónimos Monastery and Sintra Palace, using faces that are well known to Portuguese audiences, including Ana Zanatti, Victor de Sousa, Herman José, Nicolau Breyner and Vitor Mendes. It is said that nobody knew the director's true intentions and, when the film finally premiered here in 1985, the actors and crew were caught off guard by the erotic content of the images.