Tabu: A Story of the South Seas

"Tabu: A Story of the South Seas" (1931) is F. W. Murnau's final film you can watch online on iFILM, shot on location in Tahiti and Bora Bora with Polynesian non-professional actors as the leads.

A young pearl diver named Matahi falls for a woman named Reri. The tribal chief names her a sacred virgin — taboo, untouchable by any man. The couple runs to another island where the old rules don't hold, and the film watches whether escape is ever truly possible. Murnau began the project as a collaboration with documentarian Robert Flaherty of "Nanook of the North"; they split over creative direction and Murnau finished it alone. Cinematographer Floyd Crosby's work here landed him the Academy Award for Best Cinematography in 1932. Murnau died in a car crash a week before the New York premiere — he never saw it open. Stream "Tabu" online on iFILM.