1001 Nights: Volume 1 - The Restless

In Portugal, a European state in crisis, a director intends to write fictional stories inspired by the troubles of his country. Unable to find meaning in his work, he cowardly escapes and leaves his place to the charming Scheherazade. She needs a lot of courage and wit not to bore the king with the oppressive stories of this country! As the nights pass, desperation replaces fear and rapture replaces despair. She divides her stories into three chapters and begins as follows: "It is said, O happy king, that in a sad country, of all countries..." First film on Miguel Gomes' film trilogy, in which he uses the structure of the fairy tale collection of "1001 Nights" for a contemporary, poetic parable on the current situation in Portugal. Miguel Gomes himself plays the director who wants to transform the desolate situation into cinematic stories, but leaves the narration to the beautiful Scheherazade. But she doesn't tell the king stories about Sindbad or Aladdin, but about events in Portugal between August 2013 and July 2014, the time when the country came into conflict with the EU due to its economic situation. The stories mix fact and fiction, the realistic and the poetic, the fairytale and the absurd.