TABU

"An impressively dense yet fleeting concatenation of doomed love, colonial guilt [and] a reflection on the changing aesthetics and characteristics of cinema." - Cinema Scope

Pilar is troubled by her neighbour, Aurora, a lonely, temperamental woman in her 80s who escapes to the casino whenever she has money and believes her maid is practising voodoo against her. On her deathbed, Aurora summons a stranger, Gian Luca, who is gradually revealed as the long-lost love of her life. Gian Luca's story of their doomed love affair comprises the film's mesmerising second half.

The talk of the 2012 Berlinale (where it won the FIPRESCI Prize), Tabu moves from contemporary Portugal to colonial Africa in a highly inventive style, at the same time emotional and whimsical. Told in two parts and shot in black and white, it is a film about the passage of time, contrasting a society wallowing in nostalgia with one that delivers everything the characters - and we - may dream of, and live for.

“Surprisingly enriching and poetic… Tabu is nearly uncategorizable.” - Variety

D Miguel Gomes P Sandro Aguilar, Luis Urbano S Miguel Gomes, Mariana Ricardo Dist Palace Films L Portuguese w/English subtitles TD DCP/2012