In Wonderland – The Films of Miguel Gomes

One can't stop wondering and has no idea what is happening to oneself when watching the films of the Portuguese filmmaker Miguel Gomes. His two full-length and six short films offer bizarre topics, wild, meandering forms and an irrepressible imagination. They are in many respects idiosyncratic, inventive, playful, frolicsome, disorderly, anarchic, and absurd. Gomes ignores genre borders and narrative conventions, he doesn't play by the customary rules of the game and employs all kinds of means drawn from the cinematic treasure chest. He confuses the levels of time, artfully blurs the borders between documentary and fiction, unexpectedly changes the stops, and jumps from one genre to the next: His films are fairy-tale, musical, comedy, and melodrama all in one. The theme is often coming of age, or young men’s fear and refusal to grow up. Music always plays an important role.