Α hybrid film that features a pair of nested stories and draws its title, theme and part of its structure from the collaboration between Murnau and documentary filmmaker Flaherty. Gomes himself describes it as “a film about things that are extinguished”, showcasing beautifully crafted 16mm and 35mm black-and-white visuals shot by Rui Poças in the oldfashioned Academy ratio. Set in contemporary Lisbon, the first part of the film follows a religious woman concerned about her depressed neighbor. The second part shifts to a Portuguese colony in the 1960s, where an old lover recounts a passionate love story near Tabú Mountain. The film pays homage to the aesthetics of silent cinema, blending nostalgia with moments of humor and a 1960s pop soundtrack, solidifying its place as one of Gomes’s most poignant works.

Miguel Gomes (Lisbon, 1972) is a distinguished Portuguese filmmaker, known for his innovative narrative approach and hybrid cinematic style. His sixth feature, Grand Tour, premiered in the Competition Section at the 2024 Cannes Film Festival, where it won the Best Director Award. Gomes began his career with short films before making his feature debut with The Face You Deserve (2004). His subsequent works, including Aquele Querido Mês de Agosto (2008) and Tabu (2012)—which won the Alfred Bauer and FIPRESCI awards at the Berlin Film Festival—highlight his unique ability to blend fiction and documentary, exploring themes of personal and collective memory, history, and identity with a nostalgic and playful tone. His ambitious Arabian Nights trilogy (2015), with its fragmented narrative structure, reinvents classic stories, while The Tsugua Diaries (2021), a collaboration with Maureen Fazendeiro, continues to experiment with storytelling conventions. Retrospectives of his work have been presented in countries including Austria, Italy, Spain, Germany, and the United States. A graduate of the Lisbon School of Film and Theatre, Gomes is also a former film critic.