In his extended, panoramic reflection on the Portuguese way of being in the world — a theme that runs more or less explicitly through his entire filmography — João Botelho also used comedic devices to decipher the particularities of Portuguese-ness. With clear echoes of Vicentian theatre and Queirozian prose, and subtitled “a Portuguese comedy”, Tráfico starts from the traditional family to become an amusing and complex puzzle that depicts Portuguese society still recovering from the hangover of its European integration.