As a title card within the film itself states, this is not in fact an adaptation of One Thousand and One Nights. Instead it’s a film about contemporary events in Portugal, focusing on how the country is suffering under austerity but it does use the structure of Scheherazade telling stories. It’s also part one of a three volume series but I doubt I’ll ever get around to watching the remaining entries.

The film opens with a scene that essentially shows director Miguel Gomes agonizing over what sort of film to make. Drawn in different directions by the closing of ports in Portugal and the invasion of Asian wasps that threaten the local bees, the director makes a film that encompasses both the gravity and the absurdity of his country’s misery. This volume includes three stories: about the troika and Portugal’s leaders being literally impotent; a cockerel that disturbs the local neighborhood while local elections are being held because of a love triangle that involves arson, and a social worker who listens to the stories of the unemployment while he tries to raise funds to organize a swimming event on the beach for them. This terse description however leaves out much of the weirdness that suffuses the stories. The cockerel for example is judged by a magistrate who is able to talk to animals while the social worker sees his doctor in what appears to be the innards of a whale. As you might, this doesn’t aid the film’s comprehensibility in any way.

Some of the references are straightforward enough to understand. Portraying the European troika plus the Portuguese leaders as being literally impotent as they repeatedly claim that they are powerless to solve the country’s financial woes is wickedly brilliant. As they take a break for lunch they come across a witch doctor who offers them a cure that instantly engorges their organs and suddenly they feel empowered to offer better terms to the country. But while I understood the plot of the second story about the cockerel and could tell that it was trying to say something about local politics, I couldn’t see what point the director was trying to make. There are even times when I thought I understood the director’s point but felt it was somewhat petty. The swimming event is presented as something of a triumph and a way of restoring hope to the unemployed but it seems to me that what they need is a more concrete form of assistance.

My wife disliked this because it does most of its storytelling through telling instead of showing. Indeed, much of the time the images on screen have little to do with what is being said and should be regarded more like suggestions. At least the images are composed very well and there are the occasional bits of visual surprises. Finally, I am not fond of leftist politics and I think while the jabs against the international institutions here are well deserved, it’s not as if the director is offering any superior solutions. The economics as presented here are facile. Apparently the director believes that having the country having a higher budget deficit is inherently a good thing. The unemployed complain about being fired after offering decades of service but what is to be done if the company isn’t currently profitable? As always, this film is an artist’s lament without any insight or real analysis of Portugal’s situation.

There’s no denying the ambition or the creativity in this work but I understood too few of the references to be able to truly appreciate it. I’m certainly not going to sit through some six plus hours of it when I’m getting so little out of it.