Film Festival 09 - Our Beloved Month of August
Our Beloved Month of August
Aquele querido mes de agosto, Portugal 2008, 150m
Director: Miguel Gomes
Festivals: Cannes (Directors' Fortnight), Vancouver 2008; San
Francisco 2009
Surrender to this strange and wonderful film's playful weaving
between documentary and drama and its rousing soundtrack and you
may feel the benefits of a summer holiday in the mountains of
Arganil, Portugal. Director Miguel Gomes becomes acquainted with
some of the local legends before introducing some legends of his
own in a storyline about a trio of musicians who appear to be
living the kind of forbidden, thwarted love lives they sing about
with such gratifying fervour. - BG. "A tantalizing mix of
documentary, fiction and everything in between (including music
video), Miguel Gomes' 150-minute love song to rural Portugal,
scores viscerally as well as intellectually. Gorgeously
photographed performances by semi-pro Portuguese dance-music bands
at the summer Pardieiros festival set one's eyes ablaze and toes
tapping, but Gomes goes further to work the brain as a narrative
slowly, sneakily emerges out of the vérité
melody-making." - Rob Nelson, Variety
In Portuguese with English subtitles
