Why you can trust 12DOVE Our experts review games, movies and tech over countless hours, so you can choose the best for you. Find out more about our reviews policy.
Portuguese director Miguel Gomes’ tales-within-tales curio is baffling – but it’s also an enchanting love letter to cinema’s bygone magic.
From present-day Lisbon, where Aurora (Laura Soveral) is slipping into senility, we go back to her colonial African past, where as a young wife she had an illicit affair.
It’s not until this second part, narrated without dialogue and in luminous 16mm (like a silent-era classic) that we become fully swept up in the lovers’ passions.
But this blend of tongue-in-cheek exoticism and desire so strong it makes crocodiles melancholic amply rewards your patience.
