This is a powerful fictional retelling of the life of the great film-maker F.W. Murnau. Murnau was a master of the silent cinema and one of his most enduring works is Nosferatu - the first vampire film and one whose images still haunt our consciousness. Like Nosferatu, Murnau was cold and impenetrable, a man whose great needs drained all those who came into contact with him. But underneath this exterior lay a wound caused by his betrayal of the great love of his life, a betrayal which resulted in the death of his lover in the trenches of World War I. It is only in the South Seas during the shooting of Tabu that his heart's anguish is finally assuaged.