{"id":16823,"date":"2022-09-02T17:43:59","date_gmt":"2022-09-02T15:43:59","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.samdb.co.za\/blogs\/?p=16823"},"modified":"2022-09-02T17:44:01","modified_gmt":"2022-09-02T15:44:01","slug":"three-thousand-years-of-longing-opens-2-september-2022","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.samdb.co.za\/blogs\/blog\/2022\/09\/02\/three-thousand-years-of-longing-opens-2-september-2022\/","title":{"rendered":"“Three Thousand Years Of Longing” – Opens 2 September 2022"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Oscar-winning filmmaker GEORGE MILLER first encountered Alithea and the Djinn when he read British author A.S. BYATT\u2019s 1994 short story \u2018The Djinn in the Nightingale\u2019s Eye\u2019 in the late 1990s.
\u201cIt\u2019s a story that seemed to probe many of the mysteries and paradoxes of life, and so succinctly\u201d Miller recalls. \u201cOnce read it stayed with me, as some stories tend to do\u2026then, one day it occurred to me that it should be a film.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n

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\"Idris<\/a>
Idris Elba (The Djinn) & Tilda Swinton (Alithea)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

\u201cIt felt unique, something that you couldn\u2019t quite fit into any genre and it ticked one very important box – there must be a whole lot more to it than meets the eye. There are stories within stories, a little like One Thousand and One Nights\u201d says Miller.<\/p>\n\n\n

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\"Idris<\/a>
Idris Elba (The Djinn)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

Miller\u2019s production company, Kennedy Miller Mitchell, bought the rights to the story in the late 1990s. Miller collaborated on the screenplay with AUGUSTA GORE.<\/p>\n\n\n

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\"Tilda<\/a>
Tilda Swinton (Althea)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

The Djinn admits to being too fond of the company of women. Through him we meet the Queen of Sheba, a slave and a genius. Gore adds: \u201cThe novella comments on the notion of women operating powerfully from positions of powerlessness\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n

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\"Tilda<\/a>
Tilda Swinton stars as Alithea Binnie and Idris Elba as The Djinn in director George Miller\u2019s film THREE THOUSAND YEARS OF LONGING A Metro Goldwyn Mayer Pictures film Photo credit: Courtesy of Metro Goldwyn Mayer Pictures Inc. \u00a9 2022 Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Pictures Inc. All Rights Reserved<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

As the screenplay developed, in and around his other output, Miller was conscious that the film would be very different to his previous feature, 2015\u2019s post-apocalyptic MAD MAX: FURY ROAD.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cFury Road was mostly set outdoors, this film is mostly indoors,\u201d he notes. \u201cFury Road had little dialogue; in this film a large part of the action happens through the discourse between Alithea and the Djinn. Fury Road played out in a compressed time frame \u2013 three days and two nights. This story happens over three thousand years.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But for Miller, the commonality was in the dynamic narrative possibilities.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI approach stories like people use Geiger counters,\u201d he explains, \u201clooking for rich, dramatic \u2018radiation\u2019. Is there a deep seam to mine?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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