Volume 2 of the Miguel Gomes Arabian nights trilogy is the best and the more conventional of the three films, if you can call those films conventional. It is a modern spin the One thousand and one nights collection of middle east stories. But the stories told by Scheherazade are about Portuguese people living in poverty due to austerity measures imposed on them by the government. In Arabian nights volume 2: The desolate one there are only two segments. The first one is about a judge who become “desolate” when she realize that every witness in her court has become a criminal or the victim of a crime. Every cases keeps getting worse. The star of the second segment is a cute little dog named Dixie. Dixie goes from homes to homes because her masters just don’t have the means to keep a dog. These ambitious films are a hard sell and certainly no for all, but it is about an important topic and they deserve to be seen.
Rémi-Serge Gratton
Arabian nights volume 2: The desolate one
Directed by:
Miguel Gomes
Screenplay by:
Telmo Churro
Miguel Gomes
Mariana Ricardo
Inspired by One thousand and one nights
Starring:
Adriano Luz
Americo Silva
Carloto Cotto
Crista Alfaiate
Fernanda Loureiro
Rogerio Samora
131 min.
In Portuguese, English, German and Mandarin with English subtitles