Three Thousand Years of Longing
Three Thousand Years of Longing
A solitary scholar discovers an ancient bottle while on a trip to Istanbul and unleashes a djinn who offers her three wishes. Filled with reluctance, she is unable to come up with one, so the djinn tries to inspire her with his stories.
Kevin Ward reviewedJuly 6, 2025
Alithea (Swinton), a narratologist, comes across a Djinn or genie in a lamp (Elba), that can grant her three wishes. Once she does, Djinn can be released from his prison. In her vast studies of literature, Alithea is well versed in the cautionary tales of wishes gone wrong and thus she intends to not use any of her wishes. Doing so would, however, effectively condemn Djinn for eternity so he proceeds to tell her the stories of his past in an effort to convince her to proclaim her hearts deepest desires.
Genie’s stories span thousands of years and are told in vignettes with plenty of visual flair from George Miller. Elba and Swinton are never not fantastic as Alithea and Djinn (lets call them Alidjinn) and as we dive into this lore I was completely engrossed. There’s a great irony here, however, in which a literal story about stories and storytelling, really fumbles the main narrative; and it won’t take a narratologist to see that. Would have loved to see more elements from Djinn’s stories payoff in Alithea’s. There are plenty of good elements, but as a whole (and particularly the third act) it really didn’t work for me. Add in that there’s quite a lot of nudity (sorry, not Idris—though he is shirtless for most of it), but it’s not a film anyone would want to show their kids.