announcing a reward for the return of the couple, but Matahi bribes him with his last pearl. Then, Hitu arrives on the island and sees Reri alone, informing her that she has three days to give herself up or Matahi will be put to death. Without telling Matahi of her meeting with Hitu, Reri decides they must flee once more. However, when Matahi goes to buy tickets on a schooner, the shopkeepers instead take the money as partial payment of his debt. That night, Hitu returns with a spear. Reri first throws herself in front of the sleeping Matahi, then agrees to return to Bora Bora to save his life. When Matahi stirs, Reri pretends to be asleep. Matahi gets up and decides to get money by getting a pearl from a tabu region of the lagoon, a perilous place guarded by a shark that has already taken the life of one diver. While he is away, Reri writes a farewell note, and leaves with Hitu. Matahi manages to get a pearl while fending off the shark. When he returns, however, he finds the note. He swims after Hitu's boat. He manages to grab a rope trailing from the boat, unbeknownst to the sleeping Reri, but Hitu cuts it. Undaunted, Matahi continues swimming after them until he eventually tires and drowns. Cast According to an intertitle at the beginning, "only native-born South Sea islanders appear in this picture with a few half-castes and Chinese". Matahi as The Boy Anne Chevalier as The Girl (as Reri) Bill Bambridge as The Policeman (as Jean) Hitu as The Old Warrior Production Pre-production Murnau was coming off two troubled Fox Studios productions, Four Devils (1928) and City Girl (1930), while Flaherty's Native American documentary Acoma the Sky City had been shut down. The two directors knew each through Flaherty's brother David, and Murnau expressed a desire to make a film in Tahiti with Flaherty who had experience with the natives there. Murnau and Flaherty wrote a story called Turia and started their own production company, Flaherty-Murnau Productions. Turia was based on a legend Flaherty had heard while working on W. S. Van Dyke's White Shadows in the South Seas (1928) and contained many elements which would later evolve into Tabu: A Story of the South Seas. Murnau visited Tahiti in May 1929 and was joined by Flaherty a month later to scout for locations