Arabian Nights: Volume 2 – The Desolate One

In Volume 2 of Gomes’ palette of stories based on events in Portugal in 2013 and 2014, Scheherazade also features as the narrator. The tone is more sober now. Panoramic images of rough hill country form the setting of a grim expedition of an old man with a rifle - a murderer on the run from the police. At the end, this almost incidentally tells something about the atmosphere in the country.
In the second tale, a judge wants to issue a verdict in an apparently straightforward robbery case. But when new witnesses open their mouths, a picture gradually emerges of setbacks and acts of desperation. It's as if the Portuguese people had ended up in a bizarre tragicomedy.
The melancholy final episode reveals most clearly that Gomes aims to make or a sketch of society. Between a sprightly little dog and the suicide pact of an elderly couple, there is ample room for miniature portraits of the residents of an apartment building.