August Winds (Gabriel Mascaro, 2014): Brasil

Reviewed by Vanessa Garnreiter. Viewed at AFIFest 2014.

The Film August Winds tells a story located in Brazil about a young girl who works on a coconut plantation. After the natives there harvest the coconuts they load them on a big truck for transportation. The girl uses this to escape with her boyfriend to make love on top of the coconuts. During the day the young man is fishing for octopus while the girl is sunbathing on the boat and is listening to rock music. One day however the man finds a skull on the ground of the ocean and they try to find out who the dead person was. After talking to the girls grandmother, they go to a man who harvests cotton on the beach. He tells them that he knows who the man was. The young couple is impressed that they get more information by the man about the skull.

The august wind is very strong in Brazil. Therefore a man is meassuring and recording the heavy wind. He places his equipment in differents places, in the rainforests, neighborhoods and at the beach to register the wind. However one incident kills him as he records the wind on the beach in the middle of the night. The couple finds the dead body and try to get the police to pick it up. The movie gives the possibility to gain a better insight on how people in the suburbs of Brazil live. However it was not always clear how different situations connect with each other. Sometimes it felt like there were parts missing to understand the context or message of the film. I am a very open-minded person – however this film was not my cup of tea.