--- title: 'Tabu: A Story of the South Seas (1931)' type: 'film' director: 'F. W. Murnau' released: '1931-01-01' runtime_minutes: 81 genres: - 'Drama' - 'Romance' countries: - 'United States' canonical: 'https://cinepixo.com/movies/tabu-a-story-of-the-south-seas-1931' review_count: 0 imdb: 'https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0022458/' publisher: 'CinePixo' --- # Tabu: A Story of the South Seas (1931) 1931 · 81 min · Drama, Romance · United States Original title: Tabu ## Synopsis Tabu: A Story of the South Seas is a 1931 American synchronized sound film directed by F. W. Murnau. While the film has no audible dialog, it was released with a synchronized musical score with sound effects using the Western Electric Sound System sound-on-film process. A docufiction, it is split into two chapters: The first, called "Paradise", depicts the lives of two lovers on a South Seas island until they are forced to escape the island when the girl is chosen as a holy maid to the gods. The second chapter, "Paradise Lost", depicts the couple's life on a colonised island and how they adapt to and are exploited by Western civilisation. The title comes from the Polynesian concept of tapu, from which is derived the English word "taboo". ## Credits - **Director:** [F. W. Murnau](https://cinepixo.com/people/f-w-murnau) - **Screenplay:** [F. W. Murnau](https://cinepixo.com/people/f-w-murnau), [Robert J. Flaherty](https://cinepixo.com/people/robert-j-flaherty), [Edgar G. Ulmer](https://cinepixo.com/people/edgar-g-ulmer) - **Original Music Composer:** [Hugo Riesenfeld](https://cinepixo.com/people/hugo-riesenfeld) - **Producer:** [Robert J. Flaherty](https://cinepixo.com/people/robert-j-flaherty) - **Director of Photography:** [Floyd Crosby](https://cinepixo.com/people/floyd-crosby) ## Cast - [Anne Chevalier](https://cinepixo.com/people/anne-chevalier) ## Criticism on CinePixo No reviews published yet. Source: https://cinepixo.com/movies/tabu-a-story-of-the-south-seas-1931 Film facts: Wikidata (Q587579); synopsis from Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0. Reviews, themes and notes are the work of this site's members.