This affecting, bittersweet tale adapted from Brian Friel's semi-autobiographical Tony Award-winning play examines the emotional lives of the five unmarried Mundy sisters in 1936 rural Ireland. In their mutual care is 8-year-old Michael (the illegitimate son of the youngest). A voice-over from the adult Michael recalls that significant summer, in the month of August, during the pagan feast of Lughnasa when the arrival of two men disrupts their lives. Jack, the eldest sibling and only Mundy brother (Michael Gambon) is a senile priest returning from many years in Africa, and the charmingly flighty Gerry (Rhys Ifans) is Christine's long-absent lover and Michael's father. Beautiful music and excellent performances highlight the film, which also features gorgeous cinematography of the Irish countryside. Meryl Streep is stern eldest sister Kate; a quiet film, but one filled with ironic and haunting meaning.