Arabian Nights is a monumental and dazzlingly original 3-part film by Miguel Gomes (Tabu) that uses the structure of One Thousand and One Nights in order to tell the story of contemporary Portugal. Gomes’ Scheherazade tells fantastic tales both fictional and documentary, from talking roosters to the everyday trials of the unemployed. Gomes weaves a colorful, surreal, and politically potent palimpsest of a film that captures how the great recession has affected both our lives and our dreams.
Volume 2: The Desolate One. In which Scheherazade tells of how desolation invaded men: Where a distressed judge will cry, a runaway murderer will wander through the land, and where the residents of a suburban tower block are charmed by a friendly dog, while surrounded by ghosts.