Three Thousand Years of Longing

No parents, no children, no husband—lonely but (supposedly) perfectly happy, British literary scholar Alithea (Tilda Swinton) travels to Istanbul to give a lecture. At a Turkish bazaar, an ancient little bottle catches the attention of the expert on myths and fairy tales. But she is even more astonished when, while cleaning her teeth with an electric toothbrush in her hotel room that evening, a real genie (Idris Elba) pops out of his bottle prison. Alithea has three wishes. But wishing is a tricky thing. The well-read humanities scholar knows this too. Frozen with caution and foreboding, she can't think of anything to wish for. And so the genie begins to tell her about his life... During its premiere at the Cannes Film Festival, George Miller's fairy tale for adults rained down a veritable barrage of images from the screen. The Australian director, otherwise known for his elaborate action choreography in the dystopian nightmares of the “Mad Max” series, has staged a fantastic love journey about the joys and sorrows of wishing. Miller himself described the film as his “anti-Mad Max work,” which is more dialogue-heavy but no less breathtaking than his previous films. “George Miller is considered the eccentric creative mind of genre cinema. With Mad Max: Fury Road, he achieved a surprise hit. His new film [...] surprises with a tender thirst for adventure. Basically, Miller pays homage to the great ancient storytellers. His film can also be read as a modern variation on the Arabic collection of stories One Thousand and One Nights. In opulent flashbacks, Miller creates dreamlike adventures of princes and princesses in love, evil sultans, and devious magicians. Tilda Swinton ['I am Love'] and Idris Elba ['Luther,' 'The Wire'] are wonderful guides through these worlds and give the classic stories a modern twist. The episodes from the life of the genie in particular are true fairy tale highlights, which Miller knows how to stage with a lot of computer tricks. Whether the whole resolution of the confrontation between the genie and the scientist is really convincing is something everyone must decide for themselves. 'Three Thousand Years of Longing' believes deeply in the transformative nature of stories. Fairy tales, legends, and myths still explain the world to us today, not just as metaphors. This attitude makes Miller's film a wonderful viewing experience.” (Patrick Wellinski, on: deutschlandfunkkultur.de)