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Portugal, France, Germany · 2015
2h 6m
Director Miguel Gomes
Starring Crista Alfaiate, Bernardo Alves, Carloto Cotta, Américo Silva
Genre Drama
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In the trilogy’s final installment, Scheherazade doubts that she will still be able to tell stories to please the King. She escapes from the palace and travels the Kingdom in search of pleasure and enchantment. In the Kingdom, Scheherazade’s narration continues, following her father, the Grand Vizier, bird trappers training their pets, and a Chinese girl’s journey to Portugal.
The New York Times by A.O. Scott
There is a fine line between delving into the mysteries of life and engaging in mystification, and Mr. Gomes lands on the wrong side of it. There is something disingenuous in the way this movie disowns its own ambitions and scorns the possibility of clarity or coherence. Maybe its opacity is a matter of principle. Or maybe it’s just an excuse.
Gomes has created something truly unique and remarkable; a rally cry against the powers that have choked the fire out of his country and a love song to those he sees rekindling the flame. Its constituent parts may not be perfect, but what a stunning whole.
This is a masterpiece not because it culminates in some redemptive catharsis or clinching argument for social change, but because, by disavowing such facile ends, it meets the mess of life on its own clear and true terms.
Slant Magazine by Christopher Gray
Miguel Gomes combats austerity with expansiveness, leavened by doses of frivolity and scatology.
The A.V. Club by Ignatiy Vishnevetsky
The movies may be, in part, about fantasy, but they always look like they’re from somewhere very real.
The great thing about Arabian Nights is that if one story isn't to your liking, another pops up, so the decision to give this tale a feature-length running time is perplexing. But quibbles aside, this is daring, magical filmmaking.
The Globe and Mail (Toronto) by Kate Taylor
Arabian Nights is a remarkable achievement, but also an erratic one.
The Playlist by Oliver Lyttelton
It’s dizzying stuff, and virtually everything that Gomes tries his hand to works: it’s a film that’s moving, sad, exciting, fiery, and funny.
The Guardian by Peter Bradshaw
What a delicate, elegant marvel these movies have been.
RogerEbert.com by Scout Tafoya
As the themes, characters and ideas from the first two parts begin to reappear, so too do full-figured women and gorgeous, semi-nude men right out of the earthly kingdoms of Pasolini.
Alongside a trio of music hall singers, a grandmother attempts to rescue her grandson.
In 1917, in the red-light district of New Orleans, they called her "Pretty Baby."
A princess's crime and punishment
Why are they here?
In this second installment of Gomes’ trilogy, Scheherazade tells three tales of a Portugal in crisis
The songbird's story.
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A poor family lies and schemes their way into the employ of a wealthy household — successfully, but with great consequences.
A drummer loses his hearing and has to come to grips with a future that will be filled with silence.