Three Thousand Years of Longing (15)

Director: George Miller

Runtime: 1h48m

Cast: Idris Elba,Tilda Swinton

Synopsis: Dr Alithea Binnie (Tilda Swinton) is an academic – content with life and a creature of reason. While in Istanbul attending a conference, she happens to encounter a Djinn (Idris Elba) who offers her three wishes in exchange for his freedom. This presents two problems. First, she doubts that he is real and second, because she is a scholar of story and mythology, she knows all the cautionary tales of wishes gone wrong. The Djinn pleads his case by telling her fantastical stories of his past. Eventually she is beguiled and makes a wish that surprises them both.

URL: https://youtu.be/TWGvntl9itE

Three Thousand Years of Longing is a 2022 dark fantasy film directed and co-written by George Miller, whose Mad Max franchise, with The Road Warrior (1981) and Mad Max: Fury Road (2015), have been hailed as amongst the greatest all-time action films; and the gentler Babe (1998).

This new film is an adaptation of the short story “The Djinn in the Nightingale’s Eye” by A. S. Byatt.

Dr. Alithea Binnie (Tilda Swinton) is an academic in the field of narratology which allows her to travel the world and participate in literary conferences. Arriving in Istanbul she checks in to the luxury Pera Palace Hotel and her room is said to be the one in which Agatha Christie wrote Murder on the Orient Express:

In the legendary Grand Bazaar, Alithea buys a beautiful little glass vase and when she accidently breaks and releases a djinn [Idris Elba] who offers her three wishes in exchange for his freedom. This presents two problems. First, she doubts that he is real and second, because she is a scholar of story and mythology, she knows all the cautionary tales of wishes gone wrong. The Djinn pleads his case by telling her fantastical stories of his past and eventually she is so beguiled with the genie that they trade intimate feelings in what is something like an adult Aladdin or Arabian nights sweeping love story, filled with romance, wistful longing and epic fairy tales spanning centuries and continents.

A fantastical and highly emotional romance drama, Three Thousand Years of Longing is a cinematic experience in every way, with a beautiful score by Tom Holkenborg and immaculately shot by John Seale.

Certainly it is worth one of our three wishes to see Idris Elba and Tilda Swinton light up the big screen, with seamless special effects in a kaleidoscopic backdrop of the Middle East, spanning from the time of King Solomon and Sheba through the Ottomon Empire with stunningly beautiful and often heartbreaking backstories.

In cinemas.

Images courtesy of: Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer