ARABIAN NIGHTS 3 - THE ENCHANTED ONE -

“Arabian Nights – Volume 3: The Enchanted One” (Portugal 2015) begins with the narrator herself. Scheherazade (Crista Alfaiate), daughter of the grand vizier, tells stories to postpone her execution, and notices that she is running out of them. She flees the palace, and Miguel Gomes shows old Baghdad as a sunny Mediterranean archipelago with hippies and breakdancers. On her return follows the longest narrative of the trilogy, a documentary chronicle: bird-catchers from the suburbs of Lisbon train their finches for singing contests – men who spend their days in aviaries and on wasteland, teaching their birds ever more intricate songs.

The conclusion is the quietest part: after the fables of the first volume and the mourning stories of the second, the film slows into observation, and the fairy tale gives way to documentary. It premiered on 20 May 2015 in the Quinzaine des Réalisateurs in Cannes. Together with the other two parts, the film was shown at Around the World in 14 Films 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