Tuesday (2023)
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2025-09 to 2026-08
A mother attempts to protect her terminally ill daughter from the literal personification of Death.
The story
Zora's 15-year-old daughter, Tuesday, suffers from an incurable terminal illness. Death arrives in the form of a size-altering macaw to provide Tuesday with relief from her suffering. Tuesday recognizes the bird's identity and asks it to wait until her mother returns. When Zora discovers the macaw, she initially tries to capture it but eventually takes drastic measures to prevent it from taking her daughter's life. The film explores the intense bond between mother and daughter as they navigate the impending reality of mortality and the supernatural intervention of Death.
Full plot (contains spoilers)
Zora's 15-year-old daughter, Tuesday, is terminally ill. Death appears as a size-altering macaw to offer Tuesday relief. Tuesday asks Death to wait for her mother. Upon finding the bird, Zora tricks it into the garden, bashes it with a book, sets it on fire, and then eats the charred remains. With Death inside Zora, people and animals begin roaming the countryside in a zombie-like state, unable to die from lethal accidents. Zora's size changes under stress. Tuesday convinces her mother to act as a proxy for Death to end the suffering of others. Realizing the depth of her daughter's pain, Zora eventually regurgitates Death. They reach an agreement, and Tuesday dies later that day. Following her daughter's death, a demoralized Zora is visited by Death. Death encourages her to keep Tuesday's memory alive as a reason to live, ending with Zora telling herself to 'Get up, woman.'
- First release year
- 2023
- Runtime (minutes)
- 110
- Production countries
- United States; United Kingdom
- Original languages
- English
- Directors
- Daina O. Pusić
- Writers
- Daina O. Pusić · writer; Daina O. Pusić · director
- Cast and characters
- Julia Louis-Dreyfus · Zora; Lola Petticrew · Tuesday; Leah Harvey; Arinzé Kene
- Genres
- fantasy; drama
- Themes
- mother-daughter relationships; mortality; grief
- Tone and mood
- fable-like; weird; funny; janky
- Premise and plot tags
- fantasy; drama; terminal illness; death
- Reception
- The film received generally favourable reviews from critics, with some praising its fable-like quality and others criticizing its tonal consistency.
- Reported review scores
- Metacritic · score: 69 · scale: 100 · review count: 33
- Production trivia
- The film was a feature directorial debut for Daina O. Pusić.; Principal photography began in the United Kingdom in June 2021.; The film was co-produced by Wild Swim Films and Gingerbread Pictures.
Film metadata comes from the open sources listed in Credits & Contact. Catalogue details may be incomplete.
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