In Three Thousand Years of Longing, narratologist Alithea Binnie, played by Tilda Swinton, is mysteriously capable of seeing and interacting with beings no one else can see. After this is established near the start of the film, she finds a Djinn (Idris Elba) in a glass bottle while on a professional trip to Istanbul. Alithea resists the Djinn’s pressure to make three wishes, which he does because only granting wishes related to her genuine heart’s desire will free him from his imprisoning bottle.
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While Alithea seems somewhat disturbed in Three Thousand Years of Longing by her ability to randomly see unusual humanoid creatures, and even passes out onstage during a particularly insistent encounter, she brushes the ability off as inconsequential. This scene raises the possibility that the supernatural creatures in Three Thousand Years of Longing, including the Djinn, may not be real at all. After this episode, she declines medical attention and explains to a colleague that she often has episodes like this, and they usually pass quickly.
During one conversation with the Djinn, she recounts making Enzo, an entity like those she sees around the world, by writing him into existence. The fact that the being she saw before fainting onstage is part of the crowd in the Djinn’s story about Solomon in Sheba’s court, combined with the imaginary friend Alithea conjured from her own stories as a child, indicate that the creatures are all related to stories and storytelling. The Djinn’s stories all relate to Alithea’s journey in the film and often mention other people with similar supernatural connections, suggesting a few potential explanations for Alithea’s unusual perceptions in Three Thousand Years of Longing.
Is Alithea A Djinn? Where Her Abilities Could Come From
During his stories in Three Thousand Years of Longing, the Djinn explains that being part djinn allows humans some ability to perceive or sense djinn and perhaps other mystical beings, which might indicate that Alithea is part-djinn. However, other details in Three Thousand Years of Longing make this theory unlikely. Alithea does not have the characteristics the Djinn notes to be part of a djinn’s genetic legacy, like furry legs, though this could be explained by the prevalence of shaving among British women in the modern day. More importantly, the Djinn can tell when a human is part-djinn and comments on it, so if Alithea were part-djinn he likely would have told her, especially given that they form a bond of love and companionship in the ending of Three Thousand Years of Longing.
The Djinn also acknowledges the existence of other supernatural entities and magical abilities in humans. A different kind of supernatural entity in Three Thousand Years of Longing blocks him from interfering with the murder of Gülten, for example. Most relevant, however, is his depiction of King Solomon (Nicolas Mouawad), a human proficient in magic who is not only capable of perceiving and imprisoning the Djinn, but who seems to use creative arts to access and amplify magical abilities, specifically music. As Althea is shown to use writing to manifest Enzo and can explicitly see supernatural entities rather than merely having a vague sense of them, her mystical talents are more closely aligned with Solomon’s than with any of the other characters in Three Thousand Years of Longing.
Of course, there are also several signs that Three Thousand Years of Longing, also shown as a book written by Alithea at the end of the film, is allegorical. Even if Alithea genuinely believes the tale to be real, hallucinations and loss of consciousness could also point to a brain tumor or other neurological issue, something her colleague in Istanbul seems concerned about. Ultimately, the most likely explanation of Alithea’s abilities changes depending on whether the fantastical elements are accepted as real parts of the world shown in Three Thousand Years of Longing or figments of Alithea’s imagination turned into a story about how stories can help people learn to love.