Cinephilia and the Unrepresentable in Miguel Gomes' Tabu (2012)

Abstract

Beginning with a discussion of the development of a transnational approach in Film Studies, this article argues that Miguel Gomes' transnational and festival-award-winning film Tabu (2012) engages with Portugal's legacy of colonialism, which is still part of living memory, by adopting a self-conscious, cinephilic address. Just as Gomes deploys a strategic, transnational cinephilia in his self-presentation through interviews, so Tabu as a film text may also be analysed through cinephilia, in particular, through its characterization of a cinephile protagonist in its contemporary Part 1, and its redeployment of silent cinema and Hollywood films about Africa in its 1960s-set Part 2. While recognizing shared filmic references flatters the viewers' knowledge, Gomes simultaneously stresses their lack of knowledge by also gesturing towards the unrepresentable. As the world of the unnamed Portugese colony in Africa begins to self-destruct, the unrepresentable unborn child indicates a postcolonial experience that lies beyond the reach of Gomes' cinephilic world. The article concludes by returning to the scene that connects Parts 1 and 2, and arguing for the centrality of the character of Santa in acknowledging this unrepresentability.