Arabian Nights: Volume 1,The Restless One (2015) - Miguel Gomes

Miguel Gomes' Arabian Nights: Volume 1, The Restless One is one of the most audacious and magical film experiences of the last few years, an unconventional blend of fantasy and documentary which borrows from the story structure of the classic Arabian Nights to explore the lives of those living in austerity-stricken Portugal.  Arabian Nights: Volume 1, The Restless One begins like a semi-conventional documentary, with Gomes documenting the poor state of Portugal, using voiceover of local residents lamenting about the state of their country, which has seen many men and women out of work due to the economic downturn.  At one point during this sequence the film takes on a very meta quality, with the filmmaker himself baring his own fears about the film he has set out to create, questioning if he is even capable of making a film that documents the impoverished people of Portugal while simultaneously using fantastical stories to do so. The title card comes nearly 30 minutes into the film, jumping into three fantastical stories, each of which offer underlying commentary on the state of Gomes' home country, Portugal.  Perhaps it's the inherent need to settle into such a unique and audacious film, but I found the first of these stories, titled Hard On, to be the least interesting of the three fantastical stories.  Hard On is centered around a group of bankers who is attempt to find a cure for their impotence.  This is by far the silliest segment of the three, with the Portuguese banker's impotence being a symbolic representation of their inability to save the country from peril.  Much of this segment is centered around a serious meeting between the Portuguese government, these bankers, and the European Troika representatives, which quickly divulging into surrealistic episode where Gomes essentially captures the poor communication between the two sides and the lack of vigor necessary from the Portugal side to accomplish anything.  The second segment, titled "The Story of the Cockerel and the Fire" was my favorite segment, involving the story of a Rooster who is being put to death due to his crowing which keeps waking people up in the morning.  The segment uses this strange, surrealistic story, which at one point involves the Rooster defending himself in front of a judge, to capture the need for society as a whole to stand up against the oppressive forces of government.  The Rooster is merely a symbolic representation of the need for people to wake themselves up from their political ignorance, and the young arsonist, which is interjected later into the second story, being a character who does what she does out of passion for her country, not hate.  This is such a fascinating segment due to its ability to blend folklore, politics, and surrealism, being perhaps up to some interpretation but nevertheless, I found it stunning and powerful.  The third segment, The Swim of the Magnificents, is by far the most tender and emotionally affecting segment of the three, a thematic story about the importance of welfare, which in turn captures the dark state of unemployment and the effect it has on the individuals overall psyche.  The segment follows a man who is attempting to take care of the less fortunate and unemployed, documenting the social savagery which exists in times of national poverty, where the cruelty and selfishness of man is driven by survival/ security, which unfortunately, at least in Gomes eyes, is defined by money.  I'd argue that it's the most straightforward of the three stories, though it's very resonant, capturing the futility felt by the less fortunate in a system that almost feels rigged against them.  Miguel Gomes' Arabian Nights, Volume 1: The Restless One is an ambiguous film at times, and i'd be remissed not to mention that I didn't grasp everything the filmmaker was trying to say.  It almost doesn't matter though, as what Gomes has created is so rich, so dense, so creative, that perhaps its unfocused nature at times simply speaks to the thematic ideals of its story -the Restless, angry ones who feel powerless due to the failings of their country. Ambiguous, difficult, absurdist, fantastical, affecting, Arabian Nights Volume 1, The Restless One is many things, but what makes this film so special is its brave, unapologetic filmmaking which is challenging but managing to blend local lure, journalistic inquiry, and fury to create a utterly unique film in the realm of political cinema. 

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