Way too sprawling and loosely-episodic to work effectively, the Portuguese auteur nevertheless gives us a rather cerebral docu-fictive, music-infused meta-film centering on the vibrancy and eccentricity of a small town blessed with a strong festive spirit.
An artistic attempt at expressing and exorcising the ghosts of childishness in adulthood, but Gomes’ feature debut left me cold and unbothered.
A masterfully thought-out and dreamlike meta-fiction by a remarkable talent of Portuguese cinema—it is both visually arresting and poetically told, and will leave you in a trance.
Eternality Tan 