Arabian Nights: Three Films by Miguel Gomes

Portuguese film critic-turned-director Miguel Gomes (Tabu, 2012) premiered his three-part feature at the 2015 Directors’ Fortnight in Cannes, receiving praise for its riveting and delicate structure and storytelling. Created in response to Portugal’s recent political and socioeconomic strife, the saga unfolds through the magical tales of a contemporary Scheherazade—the legendary storyteller of One Thousand and One Nights—who must keep the king distracted from the country’s unpleasant reality as a way to save her life. Each volume of the trilogy contains new “fables” that mix magical realism with real stories about working-class people. 2015, DCP, in Portuguese with English subtitles, France/Germany/Portugal/Switzerland.