Miguel Gomes

Our Beloved Month Of August Miguel Gomes

Portuguese filmmaker Miguel Gomes directs this kaleidoscopic hybrid of documentary and fictional narrative, set in a summer music festival in a mountain village in central Portugal. Undeterred from throwing themselves headlong into a new project by the complete absence of finance, script or cast, Gomes and his small crew travel to the village of Arganil to film the Pardieiros festival, one of hundreds of music festivals that take place across Portugal throughout the month of August. As the camera drifts whimsically through the vibrant atmosphere of music, mirth and merriment, a narrative of sorts is developed in which real people are reinvented as fictionalised protagonists, and the process of filmmaking itself emerges as one of the film's central themes.