Another charmingly eccentric exercise in meta-fiction from Portugal's offbeat new directing star Miguel Gomes, Tabu chooses to explore its characters without following narrative rules, or rather, by reshuffling hackneyed tropes from film and novels to turn them into strange, modern entertainment.
Tabu
✭ ✭ ✭ ✭ Read critic reviews
Portugal, Germany, Brazil · 2012
1h 50m
Director Miguel Gomes
Starring Teresa Madruga, Laura Soveral, Henrique Espírito Santo, Carloto Cotta
Genre Drama, Romance
Add to Watchlist
Please login to add films to your watchlist.
When Pilar's befriended neighbour Aurora dies, Pilar starts to dig into Aurora's past and learns about Aurora's very tragic love story.
What are people saying?
What are critics saying?
The New York Times by A.O. Scott
It is, of course, art rather than history - an elegant composition of dreams, memories and suggestive images - but its artfulness seems like an alibi, an excuse for keeping the ugliness of history out of the picture.
This blend of tongue-in-cheek exoticism and desire so strong it makes crocodiles melancholic amply rewards your patience.
Shot in beautiful black and white with some stunning visuals, Gomes' narrative quest is a understated gem.
The whole second half suggests a new way of storytelling-like one of those Wes Anderson montages done by an obsessive fan of Hatari! To judge from Tabu's first hour, pacing is not Gomes's strong suit, yet the filmmaker who emerges might win you over.
The Guardian by Peter Bradshaw
It's a gem: gentle, eccentric, possessed of a distinctive sort of innocence – and also charming and funny.
Like other great pastiche artists, Gomes has created a time machine to a cinematic era that never quite existed, so it feels simultaneously borrowed and new.
Users who liked this film also liked
The Lives of Others
(Das Leben der Anderen)
Before the fall of the Berlin Wall, East Germany's secret police listened to your secrets.
- ✭ ✭ ✭ ✭
- Germany • 2006
- Director Florian Henckel von Donnersmarck
- Cast Martina Gedeck, Ulrich Mühe, Sebastian Koch, Ulrich Tukur, Thomas Thieme, Hans-Uwe Bauer
- Genre Drama, Thriller
- Available on Apple TV, Google Play Movies, Vudu, Amazon Video, Microsoft Store, YouTube, AMC on Demand
Smoke
Where there's smoke... there's laughter!
- ✭ ✭ ✭ ✭
- Germany, Japan, United States • 1995
- Director Paul Auster
- Cast Harvey Keitel, William Hurt, Giancarlo Esposito, José Zúñiga, Stephen Gevedon, Jared Harris
- Genre Comedy, Drama
- Available on Apple TV, Google Play Movies, Vudu, Amazon Video, Microsoft Store, YouTube, AMC on Demand, Pluto TV, Hoopla
Secrets & Lies
Family secrets are laid bare.
- ✭ ✭ ✭ ✭ ✭
- France, United Kingdom • 1996
- Director Mike Leigh
- Cast Timothy Spall, Brenda Blethyn, Marianne Jean-Baptiste, Phyllis Logan, Claire Rushbrook, Lee Ross
- Genre Drama
- Available on Criterion Channel, Max Amazon Channel, Max
First Man into Space
The picture that leaps ahead of the headlines!
- ✭ ✭ ✭
- United Kingdom • 1959
- Director Robert Day
- Cast Marshall Thompson, Marla Landi, Bill Edwards, Robert Ayres, Carl Jaffe, Bill Nagy
- Genre Drama, Horror, Science Fiction
- Available on fuboTV, Criterion Channel, FlixFling, MGM Plus Roku Premium Channel, Max Amazon Channel, Max, Apple TV, Amazon Video, Crackle, Tubi TV, Pluto TV, Shout! Factory TV, Plex, Plex Channel
Moolaadé
A woman goes against the tradition of her village.
- ✭ ✭ ✭ ✭ ✭
- Senegal, Burkina Faso, Morocco • 2004
- Director Ousmane Sembène
- Cast Fatoumata Coulibaly, Maimouna Hélène Diarra, Salimata Traoré, Dominique Zeïda, Rasmané Ouédraogo, Joseph Traoré
- Genre Drama
- Available on No streaming locations found.
Sound of Noise
A tone-deaf cop works to track down a group of guerilla percussionists whose anarchic public performances are terrorizing the city.
- ✭ ✭ ✭ ✭
- Sweden, France • 2010
- Director Ola Simonsson
- Cast Bengt Nilsson, Sanna Persson, Magnus Börjeson, Marcus Haraldsson Boij, Johannes Björk, Fredrik Myhr
- Genre Comedy
- Available on Apple TV, Google Play Movies, Vudu, Amazon Video, YouTube, FlixFling, Tubi TV, Pluto TV, VUDU Free, DistroTV, Kanopy, Hoopla, Plex, Plex Channel
Monsieur Lazhar
An elementary school class is left reeling after their teacher dies by suicide—until the substitute arrives…
- ✭ ✭ ✭ ✭
- Canada • 2011
- Director Philippe Falardeau
- Cast Mohamed Fellag, Émilien Néron, Danielle Proulx, Sophie Nélisse, Marie-Ève Beauregard, Denise Lamontagne
- Genre Comedy, Drama
- Available on Amazon Prime Video, Fandor Amazon Channel, Hoopla, Amazon Prime Video with Ads, Apple TV, Google Play Movies, Vudu, Amazon Video, YouTube, Spectrum On Demand, Crackle, Tubi TV, Kanopy, Plex, Plex Channel
The Turin Horse
(A torinói ló)
A horse's refusal to work or eat signals the beginning of the end for a poor farmer and his daughter.
- ✭ ✭ ✭ ✭
- Hungary, France, Switzerland • 2011
- Director Béla Tarr
- Cast János Derzsi, Erika Bók, Mihály Kormos, Ricsi, Lajos Kovács
- Genre Drama
- Available on Apple TV, Kanopy
Amour
Love never ends.
- ✭ ✭ ✭ ✭ ✭
- Austria, France, Germany • 2012
- Director Michael Haneke
- Cast Jean-Louis Trintignant, Emmanuelle Riva, Isabelle Huppert, William Shimell, Ramón Agirre, Rita Blanco
- Genre Drama, Romance
- Available on Apple TV, Google Play Movies, Vudu, Amazon Video, YouTube, AMC on Demand
Hotarubi no Mori e
(蛍火の杜へ)
A story of friendship and romance between two unlikely beings; a human girl and a mountain spirit.
- ✭ ✭ ✭ ✭
- Japan • 2011
- Director Takahiro Omori
- Cast Ayane Sakura, Koki Uchiyama, Shinpachi Tsuji, Hayato Taya, Izumi Sawada, Kanehira Yamamoto
- Genre Romance, Animation, Fantasy
- Available on No streaming locations found.
Rush
Everyone's driven by something.
- ✭ ✭ ✭ ✭
- United Kingdom, Germany, United States • 2013
- Director Ron Howard
- Cast Chris Hemsworth, Daniel Brühl, Olivia Wilde, Alexandra Maria Lara, Pierfrancesco Favino, David Calder
- Genre Action, Drama
- Available on Apple TV, Google Play Movies, Vudu, Amazon Video, Microsoft Store, YouTube, Spectrum On Demand, AMC on Demand
Rafa
- ✭ ✭ ✭
- Portugal, France • 2012
- Director João Salaviza
- Cast Rodrigo Perdigão, Joana de Verona
- Genre Crime, Drama, Family
- Available on No streaming locations found.
Stranger by the Lake
(L'Inconnu du Lac)
Franck falls in love with Michel, an attractive, potent, and lethally dangerous man.
- ✭ ✭ ✭ ✭
- France • 2013
- Director Alain Guiraudie
- Cast Pierre Deladonchamps, Christophe Paou, Patrick d'Assumçao, Jérôme Chappatte, Mathieu Vervisch, Gilbert Traina
- Genre Drama, Thriller
- Available on Vudu, Amazon Video, Kanopy
Mau Mau Maria
- ✭ ✭ ✭
- Portugal • 2014
- Director José Alberto Pinheiro
- Cast Inês Aires Pereira, Diana Chaves, Maria Botelho Moniz, Débora Monteiro, São José Correia, António Raminhos
- Genre Comedy
- Available on No streaming locations found.
The Killing of a Sacred Deer
Domestic bliss requires sacrifice.
- ✭ ✭ ✭ ✭
- United Kingdom, Ireland, United States • 2017
- Director Yorgos Lanthimos
- Cast Colin Farrell, Nicole Kidman, Barry Keoghan, Raffey Cassidy, Sunny Suljic, Alicia Silverstone
- Genre Drama, Thriller, Mystery
- Available on Showtime Apple TV Channel, Max Amazon Channel, Max, Apple TV, Google Play Movies, Vudu, Amazon Video, Microsoft Store, YouTube, Spectrum On Demand, Kanopy, Plex Channel
The Divine Order
(Die göttliche Ordnung)
The Swiss countryside is untouched by the major social upheavals the movement of 1968 has brought about, and Nora’s life isn't effected either – until she starts to publicly fight for women’s suffrage, which the men are due to vote on in a ballot on February 7, 1971.
- ✭ ✭ ✭
- Switzerland • 2017
- Director Petra Biondina Volpe
- Cast Marie Leuenberger, Maximilian Simonischek, Marta Zoffoli, Bettina Stucky, Rachel Braunschweig, Sibylle Brunner
- Genre Comedy, Drama
- Available on Apple TV, Google Play Movies, Vudu, Amazon Video, YouTube, Tubi TV, Kanopy
Pity
(Οίκτος)
After his wife falls into a coma, a man becomes accustomed and addicted to the sad void left in his life.
- ✭ ✭ ✭ ✭
- Greece, Poland • 2018
- Director Babis Makridis
- Cast Giannis Drakopoulos, Evi Saoulidou, Nota Tserniafski, Makis Papadimitriou, Georgina Chryskioti, Evdoxia Androulidaki
- Genre Drama
- Available on Film Movement Plus, Kanopy
The Kissing Booth 3
- ✭ ✭
- United Kingdom, United States • 2021
- Director Vince Marcello
- Cast Joey King, Joel Courtney, Jacob Elordi, Molly Ringwald, Taylor Zakhar Perez, Meganne Young
- Genre Romance, Comedy
- Available on Netflix, Netflix basic with Ads