Arabian Nights 1,2,3

Volume 1 The Restless One: After opening with overlapping documentary portraits of a shipyard and a wasp-exterminator, the director appears on screen, contemplating his overly ambitious undertaking. From here, Gomes spins a satirical tale about the financial powers-that-be preying on Portugal s vulnerability. Next up is the comic story of the role a rooster plays in a local election, followed by a sobering triptych of interviews with unemployed citzens. Volume 2 The Desolate One: The volume's opening chapter is about a criminal on the run. In The Tears of the Judge, a public trial becomes a mockery, with the testimony implicating everyone in attendance. Finally, The Desolate One ends on an exhilarating note, with a hugely entertaining story about a dog named Dixie who s passed between owners, familiarizing us with the inhabitants of a working-class apartment building. Volume 3 The Enchanted One: Having escaped the palace, Scheherazade explores a seaside landscape where she encounters, among others, a wind genie and a daft suitor. This segues into a documentary-style exploration of the working-class sport of chaffinch singing competitions. Movingly and unexpectedly, the last gesture of Arabian Nights is to scale back its scope and provide a disarmingly modest and poignant grace note on which one of contemporary cinema s new masterpieces can close.' (Vancouver Film Festival Catalogue)