D Miguel Gomes | France, Germany, Portugal, Switzerland, 2015
Arabian Nights: Volume 1, the Restless One is narrated in part by the director, Miguel Gomes and claims the film is a documentary about the loss of 600 jobs from a shipping yard, and the problem of European wasps decimating the local bee population. As the film unfolds it seems to be more about austerity and the European wasps are really the EU bankers imposing the harsh changes on Portugal.
The first section of the film is interesting because of the way it manipulates the traditional documentary style. The director introduces the two themes and then we hear interviews from local people mixed together and it is unclear whether the interviewee is talking about the wasp problem or the shipyard closing. This connects the two issues in a simple way and forces the audience to focus, as the images that are presented are not always related to the voices that are heard.
This seems to be a revolutionary film, taking real stories from people and presenting them in allegorical, fanciful scenarios. Towards the end of the film, there are single shots solely of people telling their grim stories of despair and poverty, followed by a mythical whale that suddenly beaches itself on shore.
There is a touch of humour as the director himself runs away and his crew attempts to search for him. The entire film is made up of several allegories which relate in some way the austerity measures which I confess to being ignorant about. It was certainly an interesting film, however it was definitely difficult to watch and even harder to follow.
