Feature: Hundreds mourn death of Portuguese legendary film director

Hundreds of mourners gathered on Friday at the Cristo Rei church in Porto for the funeral of Manoel de Oliveira, a pilar of Portugal's cinema who died a day earlier aged 106.

Oliveira's funeral was attended by prominent figures including President Anibal Cavaco Silva and Prime Minister Pedro Passos Coelho.

"He was practically a member of our family and the Portuguese feel very proud to have such a highly regarded person among its greatest figures," Passos Coelho told the press after the ceremony, before heading to Agramonte cemetery in Porto, the country's second-largest city in the north.

Oliveira was known as the world's oldest active filmmaker. He won two Golden Lions from the Venice Film Festival in 1985 and 2004, and Cannes awarded him a Golden Palm for lifetime achievement in 2008.

He remained productive until the very end of his career with the help of his tireless producer, Paulo Branco, and was working on a film even as a centenarian in fragile health. His last film, "O Velho do Restelo" (The Old Man of Belem), was premiered last November in Porto and was later screened at the Venice Film Festival.

Oliveira was the only active filmmaker whose career spans both silent and sound work.

"Cinema has not died with Manoel de Oliveira, but Manoel de Oliveira was unique and cinema will not be the same without him," said U.S. actor John Malkovich after the ceremony, who worked in three of Oliveira's films, "The Convent," "A Talking Picture," and "I'm Going Home."

Oliveira's films had a unique cinematographic style, exploring the typical Portuguese sentiment of melancholy. Also among the mourners on Friday was Americo Botelho, an actor in Oliveira's first feature-length film, "Aniki Bobo (1942)," portraying the lives of children from Porto's slums.

"That's me there," the emotional Americo Botelho, 84, told Xinhua, pointing at a black and white image of himself as a child, in an old pamphlet. "Manoel de Oliveira was a comrade and a friend, as well as a great artist."

Oliveira made over 50 films in his career which began in 1931, a year after dictator Antonio Salazar came to power, but he only gained prominence in the 1990s, after the fall of the dictatorship.

Critics say he wanted to make up for lost time, after been banned from filming for so long. From the age of 83, Oliveira started making one film a year.

"He was a force of nature," a prominent Portuguese filmmaker, Joao Botelho, told Xinhua. "Manoel de Oliveira taught me so much. Once he told me, Joao, you can prostitute yourself to make the film, and to sell the film, but never while making it."

Oliveira's passing drew condolences from across the film industry on Friday. He is survived by his wife, four children and many grandchildren.

Oliveira filmed "Memories and Confessions" in 1982 and left instructions for the film only to be publicly screened after his death, because he deemed it too personal. The film is expected to be shown later this month. Endi