From Peripheral to Cosmopolitan. The Crisis-Images in Miguel Gomes Arabian Nights

Abstract

The ever-elusive essence and idea of Europe are once again questioned and debated because of its most recent crisis, which began with the sovereign debt crisis of the peripheral Eurozone economies. This article intends to be a reflection on what it is to be part of Europe as subpart/division/peripheral border of it, developing it around two levels of analysis: firstly, the artistic response to the events and social disruptions that took place on the European crisis and, in particular, through the way some cinema has looked at them; and secondly, one in which this cinematographic artistic response is created from the European periphery, and in this singular case, Portugal. Its object of analysis is the film The 1001 Nights, by the Portuguese filmmaker Miguel Gomes and divided into 3 volumes: The Restless One (2015), The Desolate One (2015) and The Enchanted One (2015).