ARABIAN NIGHTS 1 - THE RESTLESS ONE -

“Arabian Nights – Volume 1: The Restless One” (Portugal 2015) opens the trilogy by Portuguese director Miguel Gomes with a confession: a filmmaker who wants to tell the story of his country’s crisis gives up and flees his own crew. Scheherazade (Crista Alfaiate) takes over the storytelling, and what frightened the director becomes fables. A shipyard is closed, a wasp plague descends on the land, a rooster speaks, a whale explodes, and politicians make their decisions according to their urges. It is based on a year of research: from August 2013 to July 2014 a team of journalists from across Portugal filed reports on the politics of austerity, which Gomes turns into stories – from the shipyard strike to the unemployed who speak of their situation.

The opening credits state the aim: a “fictional form born of facts”. Gomes interweaves document and fairy tale, moving between anger and comedy; the first volume is the most political, and the one that most clearly addresses the consequences of austerity for working people. It premiered on 16 May 2015 in the Quinzaine des Réalisateurs in Cannes. At Around the World in 14 Films, the entire trilogy was shown in Berlin in 2015 in the Portugal Special section.

Shown at the 2015 edition of Around the World in 14 Films.

All films 2015 · Film Archive