We have reached the climax of Miguel Gomes’ Arabian Nights trilogy with the final segment, The Enchanted One. Going into this film, I wondered how Gomes would wrap up such an absurdist and somber epic. Of course, he would smash any expectations I would have, even at the beginning of the film.

Once again, we are reminded that this film is in no way an adaptation of the Arabian Nights folktale collection. And yet, the first character we meet is Scheherazade’s father, the king’s top political advisor. He laments about his daughter’s absence, as she has volunteered to stop the king’s killing spree of virgins he has recently wed. It is not simply that he misses her, but he realizes that the king could execute her at any moment, especially once she stops telling stories. We then follow Scheherazade herself, as she briefly leaves the king’s grasp to explore an unknown archipelago. She meets an assortment of personalities, including a break-dancing thief named Elvis, a virile man known as Paddleman, and a wind genie that she traps in a lamp. It is not until she reconnects with her father that we get the next and final tale, “The Inebriating Chorus of the Chaffinches”.

It should be noted that none of these events happen in the Arabian Nights framework. Most versions of the Arabian Nights do not have Scheherazade traveling to an unknown island or even reconnecting with her father.

Of all the tales in this trilogy, “The Inebriating Chorus of the Chaffinches” is the most objective of them all. There is no narration; only title cards provide context. We are told that when Portuguese soldiers were mobilized to the trenches of Belgium in World War I, they brought back the bird-catching tradition associated with Belgians catching the Chaffinch bird species. Chaffinches are known for their distinct songs and calls. Some can even be trained to learn songs either from humans or other Chaffinches.

While this tradition is still practiced, it has significantly died down in Portugal, and Gomes lets us witness how the last practitioners continue their dedication. Few catch and train Chaffinches, as the old timers have passed away, and poorer catchers have been pushed out by gentrification.

Throughout this segment, we discuss the numerous obstacles these catchers face. From familial issues caused by the noise of keeping the birds to the delicate process of catching them in nature, and the high-stakes competition of having the birds perform. We are informed of the great fire that killed a large flock of finches in the 90s. Some catchers believe the songs learned from the birds are forever lost. Certain catchers even think it is their duty to resurrect these songs.

The film ends with a bird catcher, who is played by the man who was Simon “No Bowels” in the previous movie. He stumbles upon a genie, captured in his bird trap. He hopes the supernatural being will grant him fortune, but it offers only 10 euros. Disappointed, he frees the genie nonetheless and wanders off towards the unknown.

Out of the three, I think this is my favorite volume. It is a perfect balance of the first and second, but maybe because it works as a trilogy, it felt like Kübler-Ross’s model of grief. Kübler-Ross believed that humans go through five stages of emotion during periods of turmoil: denial, anger, bargaining, depression, and acceptance. Volume One: The Restless One certainly had an air of rage with snarky allegories against the Portuguese government and European bankers, while Volume Two: The Desolate One had a more downtrodden tone, focusing on the culture of corruption and deterioration of government trust. With Volume Three: The Enchanted One, we have acceptance. The bird-catchers are aware that they practice a dying culture but continue their passion and even strive to recover the “lost songs” of the birds. Like Gomes with film, they seek to save an artform in a country that has become culturally and spiritually bankrupt.

There is a point where Scheherazade contemplates the futility of her efforts to delay her own execution. After visiting the mysterious archipelago, she realizes that storytelling is essential to memory, and that memory, in turn, is true immortality.