In Portugal - one European country in crisis - a film director proposes to build fictional stories from the miserable reality he is immersed in. However, failing to find meaning in his work, he cowardly runs away and leaves the beautiful Scheherazade to stand in his shoes. She will require enthusiasm and courage so as not to bore the King with sad stories of this country. As nights go past, restlessness leads to desolation and in turn to enchantment. Therefore Scheherazade organizes the stories she tells the King in three volumes. She begins like this: "It hath reached me, O auspicious King, that in a sad country among all countries..." Chapters of One Thousand And One Nights are adapted to a modern Portugal in this epic. Arabian Nights is a monumental and dazzlingly original three-part film by Miguel Gomes (Tabu) that uses the structure of one thousand and one nights in order to tell the story of contemporary Portugal. Gomes’ Scheherazade tells fantastic tales both fictional and documentary, from talking roosters to the everyday trials of the unemployed. Gomes weaves a colorful, surreal, and politically potent palimpsest of a film that captures how the great recession has affected both our lives and our dreams.
