Arabian Nights: Volume 2 - The Desolate Ones

Unencumbered by the framing devices used to establish this hugely ambitious triptych in Volume 1, director Miguel Gomes is able to plunge straight into the next three tales told in voiceover by Scheherazade (Crista Alfaiate). In Chronicle of the Escape of Simão "Without Bowels", a scrawny murderer (Chico Chapas) becomes a local hero after remaining at large in the idyllic countryside for weeks. The "us v them" axis crumbles in The Tears of a Judge, however, as a stern magistrate begins to despair of dispensing justice as a trial descends into chaos when each witness (including a genie) blames someone else for their own misdemeanours. And the extent to which people live increasingly compartmentalised lives is further explored in The Owners of Dixie, as the residents of a tenement block avoid responsibility for a stray Maltese poodle. Subdivided into mini vignettes, this episode offers a curiously optimistic snapshot of recession-hit Portugal, as Gomes concludes with a Buñuelian shrug that while selfishness is the root of all evil and tears are contagious, everyone is in the same mess together. Once again, the imagery is sublime, while Gomes provides much to ponder, unsettle and amuse.