Pelicula Tabu 1 |link| -

Received several BAFTA Craft Awards for Make-Up & Hair Design and was nominated for Emmy Awards in music and visual effects. 3. Tabu (2012) – Portuguese Drama

Miguel Gomes’ 2012 film Tabu is a work of cinematic enchantment that operates on the borders between reality and fantasy, past and present, and silence and song. Divided into two distinct yet intertwined parts, the film is a meditation on the nature of memory, colonialism, and the inescapable weight of the past. By utilizing a unique formal structure—a prologue and two asymmetrical sections—Gomes deconstructs traditional narrative tropes, creating a film that feels less like a story being told and more like a fading dream being recalled.

Part 2: Paradise transports the viewer back several decades to an unspecified Portuguese colony in Africa, situated at the foot of Mount Tabu. This section is a stylistic revelation. While it features foley sounds and a lush musical score, there is no spoken dialogue. Instead, the story is told through Ventura’s poetic narration. We see a younger Aurora, a wealthy and beautiful farm owner, who enters into a forbidden, passionate affair with Ventura.

The cinematography by Rui Poças is one of the film’s greatest achievements. Shot entirely on 16mm and 35mm film, the high-contrast black-and-white imagery gives the movie a timeless, ghostly quality. It evokes the silent era of cinema while maintaining a sharp, intellectual edge.

If you approach Tabú 1 expecting modern production values or a polished erotic thriller, you’ll be disappointed. But if you’re interested in 1980s European cult cinema, the evolution of post-Franco Spanish film, or character-driven stories about sexual awakening with all its contradictions, this “pelicula tabú” offers a raw, unpolished, and surprisingly sincere experience.