Loosely inspired by the stories featured in One Thousand and One Nights, a collection of folktales from the Middle Eastern and South Asia first published in the eighteenth century, director Miguel Gomes has crafted an ambitious trilogy of films exploring the economic crisis affecting contemporary Portugal and Western Europe.
Told through the structure of the original tale, of stories-within-stories, Gomes worked with journalists to collect and adapt stories from the region to offer an unconventional blend of documentary and fantasy. The three parts Arabian Nights: Volume 1 – The Restless One (2015), Arabian Nights: Volume 2 – The Desolate One (2015) and Arabian Nights: Volume 3 – The Enchanted One (2015), combine magic and realism, telling dreamy tales of talking roosters and trapped mermaids, serial killers who become outlaw heroes and dedicated ornithologist who teach their feathered friends new songs. Featuring humour and tragedy, the epic trilogy is a love poem to a country in turmoil.
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Arabian Nights /Australian Cinémathèque 25 – 26 June 2016
QAGOMA is the only Australian art gallery with purpose-built facilities dedicated to film and the moving image. The Australian Cinémathèque at the Gallery of Modern Art (GOMA) provides an ongoing program of film and video that you’re unlikely to see elsewhere, offering a rich and diverse experience of the moving image, showcasing the work of influential filmmakers and international cinema, rare 35mm prints, recent restorations and silent films with live musical accompaniment on Gallery’s Wurlitzer organ originally installed in Brisbane’s Regent Theatre in 1929.
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