ARABIAN NIGHTS: VOLUME 3, THE ENCHANTED ONE

In the third volume, Sheherazade tries to avoid her fate by escaping into Baghdad. Yet she has one last story to tell, about men who train birds for singing contests in working-class neighbourhoods of Lisbon. Gomes seems to be borrowing from the duality of Pasolini, straddling the anti-naturalism of Medea and the sociological bent of Accatonne. While the first part is a nod to swords-and-sandals epics and even musicals, shot with deliberate artifice, the second takes an almost documentary approach to the daily lives of tough men hit hard by the recession. Shot in Super 16 and 35 mm by DP Sayombhu Mukdeeprom (who is also Apichatpong Weerasethakul’s lens man), the film extends its duality into the image itself: sumptuous 35 mm for the princess and a grainier, harsher look for the bird trainers. The essence of the entire project can be summed up by the following exchange: “Let’s start at the beginning,” says the king. “Where do these stories come from?” “From the hopes and fears of men,” says Sheherazade. “And what is their purpose?” “To help us survive.” From the world to fiction and back to the world.