Film plot and background
Romantic fable story about the meeting of a caged djinni and a scholar.
At first it sounds like a story from the Arabian Nights. Dr. Alithea Binnie (Tilda Swinton) is on a business trip to Istanbul and finds a fascinating glass bottle in the bazaar. After she takes it home, a djinn (Idris Elba) emerges from the bottle. He makes her the tempting offer that she has three wishes free. His only condition: After that, he would gain freedom after millennia.
The two unequal partners confer in a hotel room in Istanbul, but the wishes soon transform the simple room into the most wondrous places in this world and from the past.
“Three Thousand Years of Longing” – background, cast, theatrical release
With George Miller’s first film since the Oscar-winning “Mad Max: Fury Road”, the audience can expect a completely different film, the “anti-Mad Max”, so to speak. Instead of only taking place in the clammy desert on the open road, a lot of dialogue, interior scenes, but also some action is expected.
The shooting for the fantasy film with a romantic flair took place in Australia, as corona regulations did not allow it any other way. Actually, the crew around director George Miller and cinematographer John Seale (“The Talented Mr. Ripley”) wanted to start shooting in Istanbul and London in March 2020 as well.
Idris Elba (“The Suicide Squad”) and Tilda Swinton (“We Need to Talk About Kevin”), who were both part of the MCU in the past but never shared scenes there, will take on the leading roles.
“Three Thousand Years of Longing” celebrated its world premiere at the Cannes Film Festival 2022, as a special gala out of competition. In this country, the opulent fantasy drama will be released in cinemas on 1 September 2022. The film is produced by MGM, which was only bought by Amazon in spring 2022. It could be that “Three Thousand Years of Longing” will appear on the Amazon Prime Video streaming service soon after that.
