Tabu: A Story of the South Seas

F. W. Murnau's last film, shot in the Pacific on Bora Bora. Matahi is a young fisherman and Reri a village girl. They love each other. Then an old priest arrives and declares Reri consecrated to the gods: nobody may touch her or look at her. The couple flee and try to build a life on another island. But the curse does not let them go. It was made silent, a deliberate choice at a time when sound had long since settled in. The cast are not professionals; people living on the island play their own parts. The production history is part of the story. Murnau began the project with the documentarian Robert Flaherty and the two could not agree; Flaherty wanted to document real life, Murnau was building a fictional tragedy. Flaherty left and the film was finished with Murnau's own money. Floyd Crosby was the cinematographer and the film won the Oscar in that category. Murnau was killed in a car accident a week before the premiere. An important closing chapter for anyone who likes silent cinema and Murnau. To a viewer measuring by today, the film shows the island's people with an outsider's romanticism, an approach that belongs to its period.