Three Thousand Years of Longing [Blu-ray]

Director: George Miller George Miller

Overview

Introverted and intellectually curious academic Alithea (Tilda Swinton) embarks on a research expedition in Istanbul in search of something she cannot quite describe while reeling from a personal loss. When she stumbles upon an unusual artifact, she inadvertently awakens an all-powerful Djinn (Idris Elba), who offers her the opportunity to achieve three wishes in exchange for his liberation. George Miller directs the fantasy drama based on the short story by A.S. Byatt. Co-starring Pia Thunderbolt, Berk Ozturk, and Alyla Browne.

Product Details

Release Date:	11/15/2022
UPC:	0883929803026
Original Release:	2022
Rating:	R
Source:	Mgm (Video & Dvd)
Language:	English
Sales rank:	25,667

Cast & Crew

Performance Credits

Tilda Swinton	Alithea
Idris Elba	The Djinn,The Watcher
Pia Thunderbolt	Orhan's Pa
Berk Ozturk	Semih The Driver/Bazzar Young Shopkeeper
Anthony Moisset	Hotel Porter
Alyla Browne	Young Alithea
Sage Mcconnell	Dormitory Girl
Abel Bond	Enzo
Agani Gecmez	Turkish Hotel Waiter
Ayantu Usman	Sheba's Handmaiden
Peter Bertoni	Jack
Lianne Mackessy	Emmeline Porter
Harlan Norris	London Driver
Leslie Krahner	Fisherman Rough Hands
George Zammit	Male Hands
Feride Eralp	Female Hands
Khoury Matthew	Blacksmith Ifrit/Persian Soldier
Burwaiss Ahmed	Byzantium Labourer
Anna Betty Adams	Sugar Lump
Michelotti Edoardo	Mustafa Janissary
Ronny Mouawad	Mustafa Janissary/Airport Surly Supervisor
Prakash Paul	Mustafa Janissary
Olivia Porter	Juggler
Quaden Bayles	Quick Change Boy
Botan Ozer	Ali
Georgiou Thomas	Rustem Pasha
Kaan Guldur	Murad IV
David Collins	Jocular Storyteller
Arshia Dehghani	Prince Cihangir
Talia Tulin Sert	Seraglio Concubine
Jean-Marc Agbogba	Zaouli Dancer
Hugo Vella	Young Ibrahim
Peter Stephens	Persian General
Simon Abraham	Persian Soldier
Bryony Pyke	Slender Concubine
Hana Habbouche	Slender Concubine
Jyoti Barry	Corpulent Woman
Madeline Berner	Corpulent Woman
Kathleen Coffey	Corpulent Woman
Nikki Hooppell	Corpulent Woman
Stephanie Julien	Corpulent Woman
Elyse Metaxas	Corpulent Woman
Debbie Correia	Corpulent Woman
Hannah Robinson	Corpulent Woman
Laura Foster	Corpulent Woman
Ashleigh Geitzmann	Corpulent Woman
Felicity Tchorlian	Corpulent Woman
Kate Wake	Corpulent Woman
Mary P	Corpulent Woman
Ron Hicks	Dead Pasha
Glenn Levett	Dead Vizier
Danny Lim	Storyteller
Eva Maria Barboza	Old Merchant's Cook
Lulu Pinkus	Old Merchant Wife
Karen Ainley	Old Merchant Wife
Aska Karem	Airport Security Officer
Melissa Kahraman	Airport Security Technician
Bridget Maizey	Rollerblader in Love
Eric John Presnell	Rollerblader in Love
Nolan Zadarnowski	Small Child
Patryk Zadarnowski	Father
Nathan Susskind	Young Man Soccer Player
Matteo Bocelli	Prince Mustafa

Technical Credits

George Miller

Augusta Gore

A.S. Byatt

George Miller	Director,Screenwriter,Producer
Augusta Gore	Screenwriter
A.S. Byatt	Screenwriter
Dean Hood	Executive Producer
Craig McMahon	Executive Producer
Kevin Sun	Executive Producer
Doug Mitchell	Producer
Tara Webb	Sound Editor

Editorial Reviews

Three Thousand Years of Longing, directed by George Miller (Mad Max: Fury Road), has eked magic out of the film with its visual intrigue and the casting of its two leads. Alithea, played by Tilda Swinton, is a literary scholar and a self-described narratologist. As a woman who studies stories, she seems content with her life in academia. She presents at an academic conference in Istanbul and faints from a hallucination. She goes to her hotel room, wipes down a bottle she found in an old antique shop, and releases a Djinn played by Idris Elba. He offers her three wishes, but because she is a studier of stories, Alithea knows that Djinns are tricky, and those wishes may come with a price. Instead of asking for her deepest desires, she leads the Djinn to tell her about the stories from his life that are full of longing, hence the title of the movie. Ultimately it becomes a study of the effects those wishes had on the Djinn and the women who captured him. It turns out that Alithea isn't very content with her life at all. She just wants love. The movie is told in CGI-laden flashbacks and takes the audience on a cinematic adventure from beauty to horror. Elba gives a performance of depth and nuance. Swinton is perfectly paired with him as an acting partner as they are both powerhouses with gravitas but watching a movie where a white woman keeps control of a black man to grant her wishes feels unsettling. It is also unfortunate that the story is laden with too much voice-over. It does the actors and the movie a disservice. The script written by Miller and his daughter Augusta Gore feels clunky, and the stories that the Djinn weaves are too long. There is too much "telling" and not enough "showing." The audience in my screening was stretching in their seats. The production design by Robert Ford (The Chronicles of Narnia series, The Dressmaker) was the highlight, and the cinematography by John Seale (Mad Max: Fury Road, The English Patient) provided intrigue as it took us on the adventure. Each location was given thought and care in its meticulous detail. The last 30 minutes of the film provide meaning to the rest of the movie and have some lovely moments, but the payoff doesn't feel worth the watch in the movie theater.