Australian filmmaker George Miller’s latest cinematic exploration of humanity is a far cry from the dusty, diesel-fueled “Mad Max” franchise for which he is known, and it proves a moment of respite between 2015’s “Mad Max: Fury Road” and the currently filming prequel to that film, “Furiosa.” Based on the short story “The Djinn in the Nightingale’s Eye” by A.S. Byatt, adapted by Miller and Augusta Gore, “Three Thousand Years of Longing” is a philosophically ambitious project, a cerebral exploration of the function of storytelling in human existence and the meaning of desire.
“Three Thousand Years of Longing” is a nested Matryoshka doll of story. The outer layer is told by Alithea (Tilda Swinton), a narratologist who has made her way to Turkey for a conference. Upon arrival, she starts to encounter mysterious, magical figures, what she calls djinn (another word for “genie,” referring to the Muslim belief in invisible spirits that inhabit the world and take the form of humans or animals). While giving a talk about the continuing purpose of myth in our modern, science-based world, she is spooked by a djinn in the audience and faints.
The script is so densely packed with mythological insight that some scenes almost gloss over interesting concepts like the one Alithea discusses in her talk, which questions the function of gods, monsters and creation myths in everyday life, when we have science to tell us where we came from. But even if Miller doesn’t linger on these ideas, they remain in the background of “Three Thousand Years of Longing,” constantly informing the rest of the film.
