The Tsugua Diaries

22 mysterious and fascinating August days in rural Portugal in Miguel Gomes`s new film.

Indie star director Miguel Gomes’s latest film (which he has made with Maureen Fazendeiro) is a hypnotising experience set in the Portuguese countryside. We follow three friends who together will build a butterfly reservat. The film begins on August 21, and then deals with the previous days of the month in reverse chronological order (Tsugua is August backwards). Some time into the film when you are introduced to both the directors and the entire film production, and the uncertainty appears: Is this a fiction film, a documentary or something in between?

The film then moves into the gap between classic films about filmmaking (For instance, Truffaut's The Night Effect or Fellini's 8 ½) and slow-moving and poetic indie films with nature in focus, like the filmmaking of Apichatpong Weerasethakul. The Corona situation, lack of financial resources and other everyday challenges are introduced, but this never gets in the way of the excitement associated with the sparse information and mystery surrounding the way one is presented with the events in the film. Also, get ready to hum Frankie Valli & The Four Seasons´ The Night long after you leave the cinema!

Jon Sæter

Director

Maureen Fazendeiro (b. 1989) is a French director and screenwriter based in Lisbon. Earlier, she has made the short documentaries Sol Negro (2019) and Motu Maeva (2014), both of which were shown at several international film festivals.

Miguel Gomes (b. 1972) is considered one of Portugal's greatest filmmakers of all time. He started as a film critic, before directing his first short film in 1999. His perhaps most famous film, Arabian Nights, was shown in the Director's Fortnight section during the Cannes Film Festival in 2015.

This film is part of