THE TSUGA DIARIES
O.V in Portuguese subtitled in Spanish and English
We could spend a lifetime living in those summers of Miguel Gomes' films (Tabu, Arabian Nights). As well as in this August 2020, that follows in reverse chronology (hence the title) alongside director Maureen Fazendeiro: two boys and a girl living in a villa and indulging in the pleasure of indolence and the ecstasy of dancing, building a greenhouse for butterflies, bathing in the pool, watching a quince ripening away under a sort of Victor Erice's sun. That is, until the filmmakers open up the shot and turn these diaries into a record showing the peculiarities of film-making in pandemic times, an approach that manages to situate itself at the opposite end from the idea of confinement.
Direction: Maureen Fazendeiro, Miguel Gomes
Script: Maureen Fazendeiro, Miguel Gomes, Mariana Ricardo
Cinematography: Mário Castanheira
Editing: Pedro Filipe Marques
Sound: Vasco Pimentel, Miguel Martins
Production Design: Andresa Soares
Cast: Crista Alfaiate, Carloto Cotta, João Nunes Monteiro
Production: Luís Urbano, Filipa Reis, Sandro Aguilar, João Miller Guerra
Production Company: O Som e a Fúria
Miguel Gomes
Lisbon, 1972. One of the most outstanding voices in Portuguese cinema this century. Director of numerous short films, he made his feature debut in 2004 with A cara que mereces (The Face You Deserve), winner of an award at IndieLisboa. His international breakthrough came with Aquele Querido Mês de Agosto (2008), which premiered at Cannes and was awarded at festivals such as Bafici and Viennale. Since then he has directed Tabú (2012), the three volumes of Arabian Nights(2015) and Selvajaria (2020), premiered in Berlin, Cannes and Locarno, respectively, and won awards at numerous festivals. The Tsuga Diaries, co-directed with Maureen Fazendeiro, premiered at the Cannes Directors' Fortnight.
Maureen Fazendeiro
Born in 1989, she is a director and screenwriter based in Lisbon. She studied literature, art and film at Paris Diderot University. Her films Motu Maeva (2014) and Sol Negro (2019) have been screened at festivals such as FID Marseille, Toronto, Mar Del Plata, Viennale, Valdivia, DocLisboa, Vila do Conde, Torino and the SEFF, as well as in film libraries, museums and exhibitions. She is part of the self-managed laboratory L'Abominable in Paris. Collaborated with Miguel Gomes as a scriptwriter on Selvajaria, writing and directing with him in 2021 The Tsuga Diaries, which premiered at the Cannes Directors' Fortnight.