Three Thousand Years of Longing

No parents, no children, no husband—lonely but (supposedly) perfectly happy, British literary scholar Alithea (Tilda Swinton, "I am Love") travels to Istanbul to give a lecture. At a Turkish bazaar, an ancient little bottle catches the attention of the expert on myths and fairy tales. But she is even more astonished when, while cleaning her teeth with an electric toothbrush in her hotel room that evening, a real genie (Idris Elba, "The Wire") pops out of his bottle prison. Alithea has three wishes. But wishing is a tricky thing. The well-read humanities scholar knows this too. Frozen with caution and foreboding, she can't think of anything to wish for. And so the genie begins to tell her about his life... During its premiere at the Cannes Film Festival, George Miller's fairy tale for adults rained down a veritable barrage of images from the screen. The Australian director, otherwise known for his elaborate action choreography in the dystopian nightmares of the “Mad Max” series, has staged a fantastic love journey about the joys and sorrows of wishing. Miller himself described the film as his “anti-Mad Max work,” which is more dialogue-heavy but no less breathtaking than his previous films.