High Praise For the Two Marcos From ‘High Tide’ [VIDEO]

Italian-born, award-winning playwright Marco Calvani has fashioned an exquisite first narrative feature, High Tide, which screens as the U.S. Centerpiece film at NewFest this Monday (10/14) and opens in New York on October 18 (in L.A. on Oct. 25 and select cities in November).

Set in Provincetown, MA, the film stars Calvani’s real-life husband Marco Pigossi as Lourenço, a Brasilian immigrant trying to survive in our current climate—a nation steeped in bureaucracy, homophobia and xenophobia. Lourenço was an accountant in his native country but scrapes by working as a cleaner for a perpetually pissed-off Seán Mahon whose artist wife Miriam (a glorious Marisa Tomei) has left him for a woman.

Lourenço meets Maurice (James Bland) a vacationing NYC nurse and they slowly bond and become romantically involved. Both are lonely and filled with longing and the film refreshingly takes its time in establishing a true connection between these two characters.

The great Bill Irwin and Bryan Batt also appear in the film in key roles.

Besides being a playwright, screenwriter, translator, and director, Calvani is also an actor and is currently filming the Netflix series The Four Seasons, based on the 1981 Alan Alda film and co-starring Tina Fey, Colman Domingo, and Steve Carell.

Pigossi, who delivers an absolutely sublime performance in High Tide, is a celebrated TV, film, and theater actor in Brazil. High Tide marks his first major English-language role. He will next be seen in Mercedes Bryce Morgan’s indie thriller Bone Lake.

The Contending had the pleasure of zoom-chatting with both immensely talented Marcos about their cinematic baby.