Film Screening: Tabu, Miguel Gomes, 2012

Speaker(s): Cecile Tresfels

Tabu, Miguel Gomes, 2012, France-Portugal
Pilar, a big-hearted retired woman and militant social benefactor, dedicates her life to others in the city of Lisboa. She shares the same floor of an old building with Aurora, an octogenarian of high character and her Cap-Verdian maid, Santa. When Aurora dies, the restless retired woman and the maid team up to explore the old lady’s mysterious past: a story of love and crime in 1960s colonial Mozambique, at the foothill of Mount Tabu. Referencing German director Murnau’s silent film in its title, this black and white film juxtaposes solitary lives, the present and the past, the alive and the dead, in an almost tragic elegance.