The feature film ‘Chronicles of the Absurd’ uses sound recordings to reconstruct the experiences of cultural resistance of independent artists
14ymedio, Havana, January 13, 2026 – The feature film Chronicles of the Absurd (2024), by Cuban filmmaker Miguel Coyula, was recognized as Best Documentary at the Cinema Tropical Awards, held on January 7 at Film at Lincoln Center in New York. The 77-minute film reconstructs the lives of independent artists in Cuba using clandestine audio recordings, graphic transcriptions, and archival footage. Coyula closely follows his own experiences and those of his partner, actress and writer Lynn Cruz.
The documentary is divided into ten elliptical chapters that combine audio recorded with mobile phones and images that accompany the sound without directly illustrating it, without interviews or voice-overs . This approach allows ambient sounds and disembodied voices to convey the burden of living under censorship, showing a daily life marked by surveillance, scarcity, and ideological weariness.
In Coyula’s own words, the work is “ugly” out of necessity: it could only be documented through a clandestine approach, which protects those who participated and reflects the reality of working outside of Cuban institutions.
In Coyula’s own words, the work is “ugly” out of necessity: it could only be documented through a clandestine approach.
Chronicles of the Absurd had its international premiere in November 2024 at the International Documentary Film Festival Amsterdam (IDFA), where it won the Best Film Award in the Envision Competition. The jury praised the use of the audio track as a political diary and the radical way in which the documentary blends sound recordings, images, and graphic transcripts to convey the tension of life under surveillance. The film then continued its run at festivals around the world, where it has received numerous awards.
Coyula recently explained in an article published in Rialta* that the motivation for making the film stemmed from the need to document the lives of artists outside of any official institution and to preserve the story of Lynn Cruz, who suffered dismissals, surveillance, and censorship. She noted that the film “is not a Manichean tale of heroes and villains, but an essay on absurdity and resistance, with touches of dark humor, political thriller, and psychological horror.”
At the New York ceremony, the filmmaker thanked the jury and everyone involved in making the documentary, and dedicated the award especially to Lynn Cruz, whom he recognized as the protagonist of the work and a central figure in the creative process that gave rise to the film.
With this recognition, Coyula continues to consolidate himself as one of the most unique voices in contemporary Latin American documentary cinema.
*Translator’s note: READ THIS ARTICLE. Your browser will allow you to automatically translate it into English (or other languages).
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