Three Thousand Years of Longing

Three Thousand Years of Longing is a 2022 American-Australian fantasy romantic drama directed and produced by George Miller, who co-wrote the screenplay with Augusta Gore. The film adapts A. S. Byatt's 1994 short story The Djinn in the Nightingale's Eye. Tilda Swinton plays Alithea Binnie, a solitary scholar who travels to Istanbul for a conference and buys an antique bottle at a bazaar. From it emerges a djinn (İdris Elba) who offers her three wishes in exchange for his freedom. Well versed in folklore, Alithea knows that wish tales rarely end happily, so the djinn pleads his case by recounting episodes from his extraordinary past across millennia, including stories set in the Ottoman era. Drawn in by his tales during their long conversation in her hotel room, she eventually makes an entirely unexpected wish, and the two develop feelings neither anticipated. The film premiered out of competition at the 2022 Cannes Film Festival, where it received a lengthy standing ovation. Critics praised its visuals and lead performances, though it underperformed at the box office.