Where was Arabian Nights filmed
Il fiore delle mille e una notte
Year: 1974
Genre: Comedy, Drama, Fantasy, Historical, Romance
Country: Eritrea, Ethiopia, Iran, Nepal, Yemen
<p>This 1974 Italian adventure film was directed by Pier Paolo Pasolini. It is the last part of his “Trilogy of Life”, which also includes The Decameron and The Canterbury Tales. The film is a free adaptation of a number of stories from the ancient Arabic collection “One Thousand and One Nights”, with the storylines presented without the traditional framing of the story of Shahriyar and Scheherazade. The main character of the movie is a young man Nur-ed-Din (played by Franco Merli), who falls in love with a beautiful slave girl Zumurrud (Ines Pellegrini). She chooses him as her master, but after he naively makes a mistake, the girl is kidnapped. Nur-ed-Din embarks on a long and adventurous journey to get his beloved back. In addition to the main line, the movie intertwines other stories from the original collection. Filming took place in picturesque and exotic locations: in Iran, northern and southern Yemen, the deserts of Eritrea and Ethiopia, and Nepal. Some episodes, including interior scenes, were filmed at Studio Cristaldi in Rome. The story of Prince Siim, which is read by Zumurrud, was filmed in Ethiopia with non-professional local actors. In one of the love scenes, the young actress Barbara Grandi, who was only 13 years old at the time, was replaced by an adult understudy to ensure ethical and legal standards.</p>
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Locations
City Gate
In movie
Scene where Zumurrud crosses the desert and arrives at the gates of a city guarded by soldiers. Introducing herself as a soldier named Vardan, she successfully impersonates a man. Upon learning this, the townspeople inform her that it is tradition that if a king dies without leaving an heir, the first traveler to arrive in the town will ascend the throne. Believing in her disguise, they declare Zumurrud the new ruler.
Real
Scene was shot at Masjid-e Shah, one of the greatest mosques in Isfahan, Iran. This architectural masterpiece of the Safavid period, built in the early 17th century, is located on the south side of Naqsh-e Jahan Square and serves as an outstanding example of Islamic architecture with its magnificent blue tiles, tall minarets and monumental iwan.
Desert
In movie
Scene where The genie declares to Prince Shahzaman that he will not kill him, but will cast a severe spell to turn him into a monkey for what he has done. The transformed prince is picked up by travelers on a ship, unaware that the man before them was once a man. Their amazement is heightened when the monkey suddenly picks up paper and a brush and begins to write elegant poems in calligraphy.
Real
Scene was shot in the Ethiopian desert, a region rich in history and diverse geography, ideal for the screen adaptation of Eastern tales. The Ethiopian deserts, especially the Afar and Danakil regions, represent some of the most rugged and ancient landscapes on the planet. These are lands where volcanic activity, tectonic faults and centuries of erosion have created an almost alien landscape of lava fields, salt marshes, chasms and rocky plateaus. These spaces have been part of the great trade routes since ancient times, linking East Africa, Arabia and India. Along these roads, not only goods, but also stories - the very stories that formed the basis of The Thousand and One Nights - have circulated for centuries.
Street
In movie
Scene where The hero named Aziz is supposed to marry his cousin Aziza, but on the day of the wedding he accidentally meets a mysterious woman while sitting under her window. The woman silently makes signs to him and he finds himself deeply enchanted by her. Not knowing what to do, he turns to Aziza for advice. Despite his own feelings, Aziza helps him: she deciphers the stranger's gestures, tells him how to respond and what poems to recite to express his sympathy.
Real
Scene was shot in the city of Sanaa (Sanaa), the capital of Yemen, in the unique historical part of the city - Old Sanaa, which is considered a UNESCO World Heritage Site. This area is famous for its dense development with characteristic multi-storey mud-brick houses decorated with white lime patterns, narrow streets, towers and minarets, as well as traditional bazaars and architecture preserved since the Middle Ages.