Character Relationship Map: Tabu

Characters

• Pilar (played by Teresa Madruga) — protagonist

  Middle-aged Catholic neighbor and social benefactor who cares for Aurora and Santa. She assists Aurora in locating Gian-Luca Ventura and worries about their well-being.

• Aurora (played by Laura Soveral) — protagonist

  Octogenarian Lisbon resident with a hidden past in 1960s Mozambique. Former tea farm owner who had a passionate affair with Gian-Luca Ventura, killed his friend Mario, and gave birth to a daughter. He...

• Santa (played by Isabel Cardoso) — supporting

  Cape Verdean housemaid and semi-literate vodun practitioner living with Aurora. She maintains a quiet, foreboding presence and avoids intruding on others' lives, drawing concern from Pilar.

• Aurora's Husband (played by Ivo Müller) — supporting

  Aurora's husband in 1960s Mozambique. He co-owns a tea farm, gifts Aurora a pet crocodile, and eventually dies in Africa, an event that later reaches Gian-Luca.

Canonical Relationships

Family, romantic, and professional connections based on plot evidence.

• Aurora's Husband → Aurora (husband)
• Aurora → Santa (Professional Employer And Housemaid) — Santa performs domestic work for Aurora while sharing her household.

  Aurora and Santa live in the same Lisbon apartment, and Santa is identified as Aurora's housemaid.

Story Dynamics

Alliances, conflicts, and narrative interactions that evolve throughout the story.

• Pilar → Santa (Social Concerned Friend) — Pilar treats Santa as someone whose emotional state deserves attention.

  Pilar worries about Santa's long silences and foreboding presence.

• Pilar → Aurora (Social Neighbor And Friend) — Pilar provides companionship and personal attention to the isolated Aurora.

  The plot describes Pilar as Aurora's neighbor and friend who involves herself in Aurora's life.

Story Analysis

A divided narrative connects a lonely Lisbon present with a forbidden love, murder, guilt, and irreversible separation in colonial Mozambique.

Plot Progression

1. Women Beneath The Silence — Pilar, Aurora, and Santa share an old Lisbon building marked by loneliness, concern, superstition, and unspoken tensions. Aurora's request exposes a hidden emotional history.
2. A Search Before Goodbye — Pilar tries to locate the person Aurora says is missing her. The search succeeds, but Aurora dies before the past can be restored to the present.
3. The Farm At Mount Tabu — The story moves to Aurora's life with her husband on a tea farm in colonial Mozambique. Hunting, marriage, and the pet crocodile establish an apparently settled world.
4. Passion And Bloodshed — The escaped crocodile leads Aurora back to a dangerous mutual attraction. The affair provokes confrontation and culminates in Aurora's killing of a friend with a revolver.
5. Letters Across Exile — Aurora gives birth, sends a guilty final letter, and forces a permanent departure from Africa. Later attempts at proximity fail, leaving the love story unresolved.