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Arabian Nights: Volume 2, The Desolate One

Arabian Nights: Volume 2, The Desolate One

2015

Director

Miguel Gomes

Runtime

132 minutes

Average Rating

No ratings yet

Synopsis

In which Scheherazade tells of how desolation invaded men : “It hath reached me, O auspicious King, that a Judge will cry instead of giving out her sentence. A runaway murderer will wander through the land for over forty days and will teletransport himself to escape the Guard while dreaming of prostitutes and partridges. A wounded cow will reminisce about a thousand-year-old olive tree while saying what she must say, which will sound none less than sad ! The residents of a tower block in the suburbs will save parrots and piss inside lifts while surrounded by dead people and ghosts; including in fact a dog that…”. And seeing the morning break, Scheherazade fell silent.

Where to Watch

Diversity & Representation

Overall Score

5.4/10

Fair

Category Breakdown

LGBTQ+ Representation

Fair

The film explores identity through theatrical archetypes and performance artifice. It lacks explicit, centralized LGBTQ+ narratives or non-cisnormative character arcs, prioritizing aesthetic experimentation over identity-based storytelling.

Gender Representation

Good

Gender is framed as a performative construct rather than a static hierarchy. The film uses actors to inhabit roles that highlight the fluidity and artificiality of gendered archetypes.

Racial & Ethnic Diversity

Fair

Documentary-style segments reflect the multicultural fabric of contemporary Portugal. The casting avoids homogeneous Mediterranean depictions, offering a nuanced, pluralistic portrayal of the local landscape.

Religious & Cultural Diversity

Good

The narrative deconstructs Western storytelling tropes by favoring moral relativism. It replaces linear, religious morality with a fragmented, episodic structure that prioritizes subjective, postmodern reality.

Disability Representation

Limited

There is no significant evidence of characters with visible or invisible disabilities driving the narrative. The focus remains on formal experimentation rather than neurodivergence or physical disability.

Strengths

  • Challenges traditional Western storytelling tropes through a fragmented, episodic structure.
  • Provides a nuanced, pluralistic view of contemporary Portuguese culture through documentary-style segments.
  • Interrogates gendered authority by framing identity as a performative, fluid construct.

Areas for Improvement

  • Lacks explicit, centralized LGBTQ+ narratives or non-cisnormative character arcs.
  • Provides no significant representation or centering of characters with physical or neurodivergent disabilities.
  • Prioritizes aesthetic experimentation over direct, identity-based storytelling.

AI Analysis

Miguel Gomes delivers a work of formal subversion that prioritizes postmodern deconstruction over overt political messaging. The film challenges the stability of the cinematic image by blurring the lines between documentary realism and stylized fiction. While the film succeeds in disrupting traditional narrative authority and monolithic cultural identities, it lacks specific focus on marginalized identities. It functions more as an aesthetic inquiry into truth and performance than a vehicle for explicit representation. Ultimately, the film's diversity is found in its refusal to adhere to singular cultural aesthetics or traditional moralistic progressions.

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