I remember seeing Mad Max: Fury Road in the cinema. Pumped by adrenaline I hardly dared to catch my breath during the action scenes. Until just now I was sitting between other media representatives in a cinema in Cannes and saw the next film by director George Miller. This time, too, I couldn’t breathe. But for a completely different reason.
That’s what Mad Max director George Miller’s Three Thousand Years Of Longing is all about
Three Thousand Years Of Longing tells the story of a single Alithea (Tilda Swinton) who has devoted her life to researching and analyzing myths and tales. Love, heroism, life itself – everything seems bigger and better in stories. But Escaping reality is lonely. When Alithea buys a small glass bottle on a business trip to Istanbul and tries to clean it in her hotel room, a jinn (Idris Elba) suddenly appears.
She has three wishes, he says, then he would finally be free. But Alithea adamantly claims to like her life just the way it is. So the Djinn tells her his tragic story. Thousands of years of love and loss, desire and pain. And suddenly a wish stirs in Alithea that she thought she had buried for a long time.
George Miller directs a fantasy masterpiece that even The Lord of the Rings series could pale in comparison to
The cosmos of Three Thousand Years Of Longing is a detailed staged world of magic, deities and magical creatures in the stories of the Djinn. His stories about his tragic love for the Queen of Sheba or the reign of terror of an Ottoman heir to the throne span over 3000 years. who thought the biggest fantasy highlight of 2022 So to be found in the upcoming Lord of the Rings series could be wrong. At least when it comes to the ambition and size of the vision.
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Even if the stories of the Djinn are visually and narratively impressive in different ways, each one hits you emotionally. Both Swinton and Elba have spoken in interviews about the very special atmosphere on set. Exactly these intimacy and vulnerability also runs through the entire film – and always provides cinematic punches in the stomach.
Three Thousand Years Of Longing tells an impressively honest love story
When Alithea finally makes her biggest wish, everything looks like a big happy ending. But Three Thousand Years Of Longing goes on. Determined to stay close to human nature even in the magical fantasy genre and to show: In contrast to fairy tales, real life does not end when it is at its most beautiful. That makes human relationships so emotionally destructivebut also so intense and beautiful.
When I left the theater after Mad Max: Fury Road, I was hyped and full of adrenaline. In Cannes, I walk out of the cinema in equal parts sad and happy. At first glance, Three Thousand Years Of Longing is one incredibly fascinating tale of loneliness and desire in a masterfully staged fantasy world that you never want to leave. Underneath, however, is a declaration of love for the greatest of all risks: love.
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Are you looking forward to Three Thousand Years Of Longing?