Immediately after the act, the emotional weight of what they have done crashes down on Barbara. She is overwhelmed with guilt and shame over the incest taboo. In the film's climax, she confides in her friend Gina, who reacts with a stunned, hilarious, and unforgettable moment of disbelief, before Barbara is ultimately comforted by a male friend who offers her both affection and a new job, providing a surprisingly clean resolution.
(1980)
Historical context for the Taboo series is available on Wikipedia. movie taboo 1980
The film’s weakness—its emotional aridity—is also its strength. It refuses the catharsis that even radical cinema usually provides. Taboo ultimately suggests that the deepest taboo is not an act, but an admission: that liberation might have been a mirage, and that we may have been freer when certain things remained unsaid and undone. As of 2026, the film remains a challenging, almost forgotten coda to the 1960s—essential for scholars of European erotica, but difficult for general audiences. Immediately after the act, the emotional weight of