Of all the stories that Scheherazade recounts in the three films, the one in which she herself is the star is the most lushly imagined. Shot at the evocative Chateau d’If, the film introduces both herself and her father, the Grand Vizier. As Scheherazade continues to tell her stories she meanders from the castle to the "Baghdad Archipelago,” where she meets a variety of characters including the well-endowed Paddle Man, who has 200 children. The majority of the third film’s two-hour running time chronicles the world of some Lisbon-area bird trappers who try to teach their chaffinches different songs for birdsong competitions.
Inspired by Scheherazade’s stories, Miguel Gomes’ trio of pics acts as a melancholy paean to a broken Portugal and a denunciation of European financial control. All sorts of nonfiction and fiction stories are woven together in a tapestry of frustration, melancholy and burlesque.
Miguel Gomes
Born in 1972 in Lisbon, Gomes graduated from the Lisbon Film and Theatre School and worked as a film critic for the Portuguese press between 1996 and 2001. He rose to international attention already with his shorts. His feature films, Our Beloved Month of August and Tabu, solidified his international recognition. Tabu won two awards at the Berlin Film Festival and was sold to over 50 countries.
filmography (selection)
1999 Entretanto (short)
2000 Inventário de Natal (short)
2002 Kalkitos (short)
2004 A Cara que Mereces
2006 Cántico das criaturas (short)
2008 Carnaval: à procura de Paulo Moleiro (short)
2008 Aquele Querido Mês de Agosto (Our Beloved Month of August)
2012 Tabu
2013 Redemption (doc. short)
2015 As Mil e Uma Noites: Volume 1, O Inquieto (Arabian Nights: Volume 1, The Restless One)
2015 As Mil e Uma Noites: Volume 2, O Desolado (Arabian Nights: Volume 2, The Desolate One)
2015 As Mil e Uma Noites: Volume 3, O Encantado (Arabian Nights: Volume 3, The Enchanted One)