Before Scheherazade continues to tell about the present-day ordeals of the Portuguese people, she first chooses for herself in this conclusion of the Arabian Nights trilogy. Longing to get to know the world, she encounters bandits and genies and, defying space and time, has a serious talk with her father in a modern-day Ferris wheel. She then takes up the Portuguese thread again and leads us around, by way of counterpoint, in the tight community of finch trappers in the suburbs of Lisbon. Loosely interlaced with scenes of police demonstrations and the adventures of a female Chinese student as voice-over.
Many of the actors in Arabian Nights play multiple roles. Some of them, including several bird trappers, play themselves. These bird fanciers provide the trilogy’s most realistic portrayal of contemporary life in Portugal, with the love of birdsong as poetic touch. Yet even here an Oriental genie can suddenly pop up. Imagination is thicker than water.
- Director
- Miguel Gomes
- Countries of production
- Portugal, France, Germany, Switzerland
- Year
- 2015
- Festival Edition
- IFFR 2016
- Length
- 125'
- Medium
- DCP
- Original title
- As mil e uma noites: Volume 3 – O encantado
- Language
- Portuguese
- Producers
- Luís Urbano, Sandro Aguilar, Thomas Ordonneau, Janine Jackowski, Elena Tatti, Elodie Brunner
- Production Companies
- O Som e a Fúria, Shellac Sud, Komplizen Film GmbH, Box Productions
- Sales
- The Match Factory GmbH
- Screenplay
- Adriano Luz, Crista Alfaiate, Américo Silva, Rogério Samora, Carloto Cotta, Fernanda Loureiro
- Cinematography
- Sayombhu Mukdeeprom, Lisa Persson
- Editor
- Telmo Churro, Miguel Gomes, Pedro Filipe Marques
- Production Design
- Bruno Duarte, Artur Pinheiro
- Sound Design
- Vasco Pimentel
- Cast
- Crista Alfaiate
- Local Distributor
- September Film