El prado y la luna

This eccentric and imaginative hybrid documentary directed by Cayetana H. Cuyás is a tribute to her uncle Antonio Gómez, chief menswear designer for Valentino. As a young man, Gómez left his home in the Spanish Canary Islands to escape his family’s rejection of his homosexuality. He immigrated to Italy, where he worked in the shadow of the Italian couturier without receiving public credit for his designs. Plans to launch a solo career under his own name were cut short when he died of AIDS in 1991. Years later, rummaging through her uncle’s belongings, the director found an unfinished film script and decided to realize her uncle’s vision by making the film with her family as lead actors. The result is a charming, whimsical, and slightly surreal home-made movie with family members in space suits and rockets, coming together in an art project to better understand their unsung relative.