LWLies 64: the Ara­bi­an Nights issue

Back in 2012, we award­ed our annu­al film of the year prize to Tabu, a sweep­ing colo­nial love sto­ry fea­tur­ing a melan­cholic croc­o­dile by the Por­tuguese direc­tor Miguel Gomes. His fol­low-up, the sin­gu­lar, whim­si­cal and bold­ly roman­tic Ara­bi­an Nights, pre­miered at the 2015 Cannes Film Fes­ti­val – and we haven’t been able to get it out of our minds since. So what bet­ter way to exem­pli­fy our pas­sion for this mar­vel­lous cre­ation than to place it on the cov­er of our lat­est print issue?

The cov­er artist for LWLies 64 is the great Whooli Chen, who has chan­nelled the film’s con­tem­po­rary out­look into a colour­ful and clas­si­cal Per­sian style.

In the front section…

A Let­ter to Miguel

Direc­tor Miguel Gomes writes a let­ter to him­self in the year 2004, just as he was about to embark on a fea­ture film career.

A Screen­writ­ing Masterclass

Miguel Gomes tells us how writ­ing a movie is a case of con­stant reinvention.

What is Documentary?

Ara­bi­an Nights is a movie that toys with the idea of what is real and what is fake, what is fic­tion­al and what is fact. Does the term ​“doc­u­men­tary” still means what we think it does? We put this sim­ple ques­tion to a host of film indus­try lumi­nar­ies to divulge the state of doc­u­men­tary in 2016.

Tales of Cinema

Direct­ly inspired by the loose-leaf struc­ture of Ara­bi­an Nights, LWLies offers a com­pendi­um of wild tales which look at the land­scape of mod­ern cin­e­ma through the prism of vin­tage pornog­ra­phy, hand-drawn fly­ers, teen fan­ta­sy fran­chis­es, Paris Hilton, Tro­ma and Chris Hemsworth’s abs.

In the back section…

Lás­zló Nemes mourns Son of Saul; Sebas­t­ian Schip­per pulls of a one-take won­der with Vic­to­ria; Jeff Nichols reveals his inner Spiel­berg with Mid­night Spe­cial; Don Chea­dle moves Miles Ahead; Patri­cio Guzmán pol­ish­es The Pearl But­ton; Kate Dick­ie and Paul Hig­gins are a Cou­ple In a Hole; Pablo Lar­rain enters The Club; Alan Rick­man excels in Eye In the Sky; Joachim Tri­er gets Loud­er Than Bombs; Ben Wheat­ley scales High-Rise; and Robert Eggers sum­mons The Witch.

All that plus inter­views with Hirokazu Koree­da, Alice Winocour, Joachim Tri­er, Robert Eggers, Lás­zló Nemes and Sebas­t­ian Schip­per, and Ex-Rent Hell re-vis­its the insane ​’90s mind-melter, In Bed with Madonna.

LWLies 64 hits news­stands Fri­day 4 March and is avail­able to pre-order now from our online shop. Sub­scribers will start receiv­ing their copies from Thurs­day 3 March. Ara­bi­an Nights is released in UK cin­e­mas 22 April, 29 April and 6 May.