Three close friends, Crista, Carloto and João – along with an entire film crew – become the protagonists of a cinematic experiment during COVID-19 lockdown in Portugal. They spend their time in a spacious farmhouse where the long, sun-soaked summer days include dancing, chores, disturbed sleep patterns, flirtations, and building a backyard butterfly house.

Shot in sumptuous 16mm during the pandemic, the docu-fiction hybrid, which unfolds in reverse chronological order, continues a career-long fascination for director Miguel Gomes (Tabu, Arabian Nights) with the act of filmmaking. This time he teams up with his wife and creative partner, Maureen Fazendeiro, for a sun-soaked metatextual celebration of the creative process and a hazy meditation on lockdown blues.

Hailed as “perhaps the most relatable depiction and examination of life under COVID cinema's seen thus far” (The Film Stage), THE TSUGUA DIARIES had its world premiere at Cannes Directors' Fortnight and went on to win the awards for Best Director at the Mar del Plata International Film Festival and Best Actor (Carloto Cotta) at the Golden Globes, Portugal.

“A work that possesses both the whimsy and fearlessness of a student project and the technical vibrancy of a veteran’s opus.” –The New York Times (Critic's Pick)

DIRECTED BY MAUREEN FAZENDEIRO & MIGUEL GOMES
PORTUGAL, FRANCE | 2021 | PORTUGUESE WITH ENGLISH SUBTITLES