This series of stories deals with: goldfinch keepers who train their beloved birds to sing for a contest, despite being located next to a noisy airport and loud train tracks; a Chinese woman whose name means “hot forest”; and citizens demonstrating in the streets against a government that terrorizes them. The stories are of course told by Scheherazade, who gets more screen time here than in the last two installments of the trilogy, and who’s afraid of running out of ways to entertain the King so she flees the kingdom in search of fun and enchantment. It is the story of a country in crisis, a reality in decline, of a dream trying to hold on tight.

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This huge work by Portuguese director Michel Gomes started off strongly – too strongly – with Volume 1, The Restless One. To the point where the next installment, The Desolate One, was disappointing in comparison. After the explosive ideas and unexpected emotions of Volume 1, the journey becomes more harsh and realistic (the demonstrations reflect a modern Portugal in crisis) in order to further clarify the director’s ambitions. The last chapter in the trilogy reduces the number of stories, concentrating one each one’s details. In the final analysis this leaves the audience with the impression of having seen the trilogy backwards, with the first movie easily ordered as the end of an unclassifiable project.