Tabu displays a love of cinema in each frame. [Full review in Spanish]

| Original Score: 10/10 | May 28, 2024

Gomes gives it a sobriety that places in the frame sociopolitical readings about the roots of colonial oppression, but there is not much emotional depth and the superfluous characters are barely outlined. [Full review in Spanish]

| Original Score: 5/10 | Mar 16, 2024

This black-and-white tone poem is no political statement on colonialism but a hushed tragedy of young, reckless love in an isolated world and rugged landscape...

| Mar 2, 2024

The strength of Tabu lies in how powerfully sex is captured, offering aural and visual textures that inspire sensorial memories.

| Nov 21, 2023

Gomes's playing on colonialist past and its taboo contrasting with the make-believe nature of the African part of the film is just brilliant. Tragic yet uplifting, daring in it's minimal aesthetics, Tabu isn't anything like I've seen out there.

| Feb 28, 2021

Miguel Gomes has made a liquid film of period romance that delves into social responsibility, cultural mingling and the torturous nature of repression, all the while maintaining a playful anti-sentimentalism that reeks of fresh air.

| Nov 12, 2020

A romantic film about lost love and classic cinema, Tabu is definitely worth seeking out.

| Original Score: 7.5/10 | Jul 2, 2019

A beguiling black and white drama that spans both decades and continents, this is mesmeric, conscientious filmmaking at its most ambitious and expansive.

| Original Score: 4/5 | Feb 2, 2019

The toothy scene-stealers are a Herzoggian reminder of nature and mortality that is part of a well-crafted cinematic reality.

| Aug 30, 2018

It fits snugly with recent European films like Chantal Akerman's "Almayer's Folly" and Claire Denis' "White Material," which have explored the ongoing legacy of colonialism.

| Feb 21, 2018

Tabu is strange, powerfully evocative, playfully experimental, and truly one of the most beautiful films in recent years.

| Original Score: 4.5/5 | Oct 4, 2017

'Tabu' is a strange and hypnotizing moving image poem with no comprehensive or unifying point of comparison.

| Original Score: A | Jun 2, 2014

A recovered memory of something that never happened.

| Original Score: 9/10 | Nov 10, 2013

It's one of those rarities when too many compliments are not enough and the recommendation to see it as soon as it's near you cannot be stressed enough.

| Original Score: A | Sep 27, 2013

The art-house film transcends some absurd moments and leaves us with a lyrical and magically satisfying romantic adventure story that is both eccentric and sublime.

| Original Score: A | Jun 5, 2013

It's far-from-enthralling.

| Original Score: 2/5 | May 17, 2013

While the path through this unconventional film is not always obvious, it is a sensuous, mysterious and intoxicating path worth taking.

| Original Score: 4/5 | May 16, 2013

This beguiling and eerie tale of illicit romance and nostalgia for lost love is one for the patient and the adventurous.

| Original Score: 3/5 | May 14, 2013

If you are still awake after the first hour of this challenging and often off-putting film from Miguel Gomez, you may find unexpected ethereal rewards in the second half, when a curious, dialogue-free narrative transports us into another realm

| May 12, 2013

Every so often a film comes along that recharges your love of cinema. Miguel Gomes' Tabu is just that gem: a film of such artistry and daring that you'll be left dazzled by the possibilities of the medium.

| Original Score: 4.5/5 | May 1, 2013