The Arabian Nights: Volume 1, The Restless One

Watch the Trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LG4F-JpULRA

We conclude our series Beyond Aladdin: The Thousand and One Nights on Film: https://asia.si.edu/whats-on/events/event-series/beyond-aladdin-the-thousand-and-one-nights-on-film/ with Portuguese filmmaker Miguel Gomes’s ambitious trilogy that transports the tales’ narrator, Scheherazade, to modern Portugal. There, she weaves a tapestry of stories blending comedy, emotion, and documentary. Though they work together as a trilogy, each film stands alone.

The first volume juxtaposes three absurdist tales of life under Portugal’s austerity measures in the 2010s, linked in the same surprising ways as The Thousand and One Nights. A rooster is put on trial for crowing too early in the morning. A mermaid emerges from a whale that explodes. And a group of impotent economists search for a cure (an apt metaphor for Portugal’s economic condition at the time).

Intended for mature audiences.

Director: Miguel Gomes. Countries: Portugal, Germany, France, Switzerland. Released: 2015. Length: 126 min. Format: DCP. Languages: Portuguese, English, French, German, and Mandarin with English subtitles.

Image courtesy of Kino Lorber