Tabu
Old ladies, next-door neighbours, sometimes eccentric, sometimes demanding attention from others… We all know the type. Aurora is one of them – after suffering another loss at the casino, she goes for coffee to visit the lonely Pilar. Although this Good Samaritan isn’t able to close the door on her neighbour, this event becomes the driving force behind what is to come, pushing her to satisfy the last request of a dying woman. Cinema is not enough anymore. She finds a mysterious man and enters the paradise world of the Great Story. This is an introduction to a cinematic love story, full of references to the classics. The title refers to (not only) F.W. Murnau, the location to (not only) Out of Africa… Each element appears only when it is needed: work, sound, the narrator’s voice, music and… a crocodile.
awards
Berlin IFF 2012 – FIPRESCI Prize, Alfred Bauer Award; Las Palmas IFF 2012 – Audience Award
Miguel Gomes
Miguel Gomes was born in 1972 in Lisbon, beginning his career as a film critic and cinema theorist before sitting in the director’s chair. His short films, defined as ‘musical comedies’, made it clear that he was interested in telling about the image and that dialogue and music served to complete and counter. As the director says, cinema is a game, hence the abundance of references to classics and the well-thought out constructions of his films. The main inspiration – revealing the cinephile nature of the director’s activity – is once a silent film and another time a musical, whose storytelling methods he incorporates into his own films.
Selected filmography
1999 Entretanto / Meanwhile (short)
2003 31 (short)
2004 A cara que Mereces / The Face You Deserve (short)
2008 Aquele Querido Mês de Agosto / This Dear Month of August
2012 Tabu