Tabu, directed by Miguel Gomes
Cutting back to the basics of cinematic art, film critic-turned-director Miguel Gomes weaves a story of a dangerous love affair in Africa at the end of Portuguese colonialism (with the shimmer of 1960s pop in the background), and the emotional consequences felt by an elderly woman in contemporary Lisbon. The woman, Aurora, is the perfect European art-house foil, as if pulled directly from the French New Wave or Italian Neorealism and aged with chicness and eccentricities intact. Gomes both adores and mildly ridicules her in his directing, because he knows (as we learn too) her convoluted past and tumultuous affair with her lover in the hot shade of Africa. A movie for those who loved the film-studies classes they took in college.
At VIFF: Oct. 2, 1:15 pm Granville 7; Oct. 4, 6:15 pm Vancity
At TIFF: Sept. 8, 1 p.m., Jackman Hall (AGO).