ARABIAN NIGHTS : VOLUME 2, THE DESOLATE ONE

The second volume of Arabian Nights features three stories: a serial killer who can teleport, a judge no longer capable of doing his job and a dog, Dixie, left to its own devices. While the title immediately suggests desperation and loneliness, for the filmmaker the work is mainly a meditation on law and justice, whether handed down by humans or destiny. Always on the lookout for inspiration during the shoot, Gomes worked continuously with a team of journalists tasked with following current events. The three stories illustrate the film’s alchemical transmutation of actual events into poetry: the first was inspired by a murderer who, against all odds, escaped a massive manhunt. How? It almost seems logical that he vanished. The third story was shot in a building where a couple had committed suicide, aided and approved of by the neighbours, and is tactfully told from a dog’s perspective. These stories seem symptomatic of a personal and societal imbalance that the film examines with lucidity and humanism, reintroducing meaning and poetry that had seemed lost forever.