The Tsugua Diaries

Three close friends, Crista, Carloto and João – along with an entire film crew – become the protagonists of a cinematic experiment shot during the lockdown. The film unfolds from end to beginning and 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, filmmaker Maureen Fazendeiro, for a sun-soaked meta-textual celebration of the creative process and a hazy meditation on the lockdown blues. Shot in sumptuous 16mm, the film is one of the most playful cinematic creations of the pandemic, for which personal restrictions provided a source of inspiration and pure joy in the creative process.

"Perhaps the oddest, certainly the most playful product of lockdown cinema." —Jonathan Romney, Screen International

"Thoughtful and profound.” —Robert Koehler, Cinema-scope.com

“A celebration of community that is heartfelt and poignant.” —Giovanni Marchini Camia, BFI Sight & Sound