Another View 2015 / As mil e uma noites – Volume 2, o desolado / Portugal, France, Germany, Switzerland 2015
In volume two of Arabian Nights, Scheherazade continues to perform for her life, trying not to bore the King with mournful tales about the gloom besetting the afflicted land. And so once again in this part of Gomes’ trilogy no holds are barred, theatrical stylization alternates with realistic narration, and it’s up to the viewer to be the co-narrator of the tales told.
In the second part of Arabian Nights, Scheherazade continues to perform for her life, trying not to bore the King with mournful tales about the gloom besetting the afflicted land: “It hath reached me, O auspicious King, that a distressed judge will cry instead of giving out her sentence… The residents of a tower block in the suburbs will save parrots… while surrounded by dead people and ghosts, including in fact a dog that...” And with daybreak, Scheherazade falls silent. The theatrical stylization allows the director to engage in a hyperbolic look at the human race that contrasts sharply with the realistic story of the clever dog Dixie and his unhappy owners. In Gomes’ film no holds are barred and it is up to the viewer to be the co-narrator of the tales told. This distinctive filmmaker’s three-part picture garnered much attention at this year’s festival in Cannes.
Ivana Novotná
131 min / Color, DCP
Director Miguel Gomes
/ Screenplay Miguel Gomes, Mariana Ricardo, Telmo Churro
/ Dir. of Photography Sayombhu Mukdeeprom, Lisa Persson, Mário Castanheira
/ Editor Telmo Churro, Pedro Filipe Marques, Miguel Gomes
/ Art Director Bruno Duarte, Artur Pinheiro
/ Producer Luís Urbano, Sandro Aguilar
/ Production O Som e a Fúria
/ Coproduction Shellac Sud, Komplizen Film, Box Production
/ Cast Crista Alfaiate, Adriano Luz, Américo Silva, Carloto Cotta
/ Sales The Match Factory
Miguel Gomes (b. 1972, Lisbon) graduated from Lisbon’s Theater and Film School (ESTC). From 1996 to 2000 he worked for various Portuguese media outlets as a film critic. His short films have been screened at Locarno and Rotterdam and have received awards at Oberhausen and Vila do Conde. His feature-length debut The Face You Deserve (2004) was followed by Our Beloved Month of August (2008), which was presented in the Directors’ Fortnight at Cannes. His third feature Tabu premiered in competition at the 2012 Berlinale (Alfred Bauer Award), after which it was shown in Karlovy Vary’s Horizons section. His latest effort, the three-part Arabian Nights – Volume 1, The Restless One, Arabian Nights – Volume 2, The Desolate One, and Arabian Nights – Volume 3, The Enchanted One, was presented at this year’s Cannes festival in the section Directors’ Fortnight.
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