AUGUST WINDS (VENTOS DE AGOSTO) World Cinema

Gabriel Mascaro’s narrative film debut quietly observes the young inhabitants of a small coastal village in Brazil. Shirley and Jeison work on a plantation, where they find time to sneak away and make love among the coconuts. The couple spend their free time at sea, where Jeison dives for octopus and Shirley sunbathes and listens to rock music. When Jeison makes a surprise discovery in the water, the two are forced to confront the realities of life and death in their village. Primarily a documentary filmmaker, Mascaro (who here serves as director, screenwriter, cinematographer and even supporting actor) takes a dynamic and intimate approach to narrative filmmaking, resulting in a poetic and beautifully lensed meditation on life and death, loss and memory, the wind and the sea.