Unashamedly art-house, unapologetically non-commercial, Tabu is a once-in-a-generation film that will be seen by only one other person you know, but hopefully someone who will have been transported as far by this provocative achievement. You'll probably rave about it in that annoying, knowing way of people who've a secret they're unwilling to share. Neither date movie nor family entertainment, it's a two generation story filmed in Portuguese, shot in colour and black and white that lapses into 4:3 framing with an introductory fable and a second half which has no dialogue. Still with me?

A pre-colonial African explorer is eaten by a crocodile to become the stuff of tragic myth. In today's Lisbon, elderly Aurora is worrying both her best friend and her house maid. They fear for the old woman's sanity. Later, in hospital, she recalls a life-changing affair she had as a young woman in the shadow of Mozambique's Mount Tabu. With a crocodile. All else about Tabu is the stuff of texture as the threads of fate and destiny entwine Aurora, her lover and their guiding reptile.

A sometimes meandering tale that requires both patience and stamina, Tabu is unlike most nearly anything you've ever seen. It's first sets up an unexpected second part that relies heavily on narration and where that would usually provoke cinematic death, here gives the film an unexpected poignancy. Having been shorn of dialogue, Young Aurora's life and the affair which turns it upside down is otherwise played out through music, vision and atmosphere. It's quite remarkable.

With one foot in the airy waters of tomorrow and another firmly in a whimsical vintage past, this striking story of unrequited love is as strange and unexpected as the crocodile that haunts it. Leave the family at home and take yourself on a date that will haunt you for some time to come.

// COLIN FRASER

Previewed at Universal Theatrette, Sydney, on Tuesday 30 April 2013