Three Thousand Years of Longing Review

It's been seven years since George Miller turned the world upside down with the release of that contemporary, instant classic that is Mad Max: Fury Road . After such a resounding triumph, it cannot be denied that there was curiosity to know what his next project would be within an already eclectic filmography, and precisely eclectic is the word that can best define his most recent film About him: Three thousand years waiting for you.

Alithea Binnie is a narratologist who, despite her loneliness, seems to be satisfied with her life. During a trip to Istanbul, a souvenir-shaped bottle catches her attention only to discover that the bottle contains a djinn . Respecting her nature, the djinn assures her that he will grant Alithea three wishes in exchange for her freedom. However Alithea knowing the stories of the djinns at first refuses to even think about her wishes, only that he will end up persuading her based on telling her stories about her past.

In case the synopsis was not entirely clear, the film completely embraces the essence of the stories from the first minute with resources such as the voiceover and doing a magnificent job of metafiction between continuing the tradition of the story and the root of the own story while questioning it, both for the characters themselves and for the viewer who carry narrative baggage behind them, making the course of events have just enough familiarity so that the audience feels comfortable but at the same time adds a bit of suspense to that comfort, so the audience's attention is guaranteed to some degree. And it is that the game proposed by Millerbetween familiarity and novelty just touches on the question of why the public continues to be dazzled by narratives, how they transform and mold over time, how stories are an excellent tool against loneliness and how they are practically present to around us in almost all its forms, leaving a very romantic speech before such work but no less praiseworthy for that.

But to unravel and get to the heart of the matter, you have to start from a more general situation and then lead to the particular. That is why the first meeting between Alithea and the djinn within their extraordinary circumstances occurs in a space with the most absolute normality, where both characters try to get to know each other, or rather, their desires and their contradictions, and For this, the main story in mundane theory gives way to fantastic stories, in a route very similar to what The Fall did., where both narrations feed off each other continuously. It is then that a lavish show unfolds to explore distant places and times, always with the unifying thread of the story, but where the imagination does not seem to have limits through the opulent palaces, the rich costumes with vivid colors, fascinating objects that populate said stories or the music by Tom Holkenborg halfway between the sounds of the Middle East and the melancholy of the darkest lands. And apart from Tarsem Singh 's film , also due to a certain narrative ambition and his desire to interconnect small details to form a large mosaic, parallels can be drawn with Cloud Atlas .

Faced with a project of such great scope, a multitude of characters populate the different stories, but the focus is always Alithea and the djinn , so inevitably the great weight falls on them and the actors chosen for them could not be more suitable. . Tilda Swinton as Alithea represents an ordinary woman, full of wisdom and with that innate curiosity for her stories and narrative mechanisms, an intellectual path that has almost led her to that solitude so precious to her. And on the other side Idris Elba as the djinn, which at first may seem like a fearsome creature but the more the footage progresses, the more vulnerable it becomes, almost more in line with the humanity with which it has lived for a long time and where its linguistic capacity to adapt to several languages ​​with ease also stands out.

And yet, as much as it plays with the familiarity of the tale and the stories, it is by no means a film accessible to the general public. Yes, it is true that its grace is to use elements that are well known to all, but when it comes to capturing all that content on the screen, it is so unclassifiable and sometimes so chaotic in a good way that it can be overwhelming or difficult to find a clear meaning. . This problem is especially noticeable in the face of the third act, where until almost the last minute it is difficult to find a goal for the characters based on what has been told previously, and their anarchic editing decisions do not help to focus the action either. , no matter how much in the end everything ends satisfactorily.

But no matter how much risk he takes and even if his decisions are not always easy, from time to time it is appreciated when a film reaches the screens capable of disconcerting and at the same time leaving grounds for satisfaction with something as simple as the power of telling stories and that remembers precisely why they are received with open arms when they are spun in such a genuine way.