Directed by Miguel Gomes

Starring: Teresa Madruga, Laura Soveral, Ana Moreira, Henrique Espirito Santo, Carloto Cotta, Isabel Cardoso

Produced by: Luis Urbando & Sandro Aguilar

Paying playful homage to several cinematic traditions, Tabu is a bold and exquisitely visual tale about love, aging and memory. Set in two different eras and shot in glorious black-and-white, the film opens with the lives of Aurora and Pilar, older women living a somewhat lonely existence in Lisbon. Pilar is waiting for a houseguest who never arrives, while Aurora berates her African servant and tells of baroque dreams involving monkeys and a lost crocodile. The narrative and the film’s entire style then shift dramatically to encompass Aurora’s life and loves as a young woman in Mozambique, as narrated by her former lover. Within its chameleonic structure, Tabu offers fascinatingly layered commentary on everything from nostalgia to colonialist naivete´ and silent film traditions, culminating in an artistic triumph for rising Portuguese director Miguel Gomes.

Film Note Writer: Rod Armstrong