Arabian Nights: Volume 3: The Enchanted

Miguel Gomes' Arabian Nights: Volume 3 - The Enchanted (2015) was probably my least favorite volume of the series, that as a whole was something of a chore to watch. This volume in particular had a very long and tedious documentary-like section about bird trappers. There a number of inter titles throughout that were not translated, but I'm not sure that would have added anything to his volume. The first section is about the narrator Scheherazade, played by Crista Alfaiate. As Scheherazade tells her stories each night in a bid to stay alive, the Grand Vizier fears she'll soon run out of steam, and is at the same time reminded of the face of his dearly departed wife each time he lays eyes on his daughter. It's hard to know what we are supposed to read the fairytale figures — such as the happy thief — in the context of a film about a nation in a deep economical and psychological crisis, though it’s clear Gomes wants to suggest something about the transporting power of storytelling and the human need for stories.