Three Thousand Years of Longing (2022)

Idris Elba: The Djinn

Photos 

Quotes 

• Genie : There is no human, nor angel, nor demon, who wouldn't grasp at the chance to fulfil their deepest longings. And I am saddled with the one who claims to want nothing at all? Alithea Binnie, you are a liar!

• Alithea Binnie : There's no story about wishing that is not a cautionary tale. None end happily. Not even the ones that are supposed to be jokes.

  Genie : But you and I are the authors of this story, and we can avoid all traps.

• Genie : And there I am, left to my own oblivion, with no one to hear my voice, no one to know me, nor feel me, nor sense me. You can't imagine.

  Alithea Binnie : Well, actually, I can.

  Genie : Can you imagine the loneliness? How it might overwhelm?

  Alithea Binnie : I can.

  Alithea Binnie : We exist only if we are real to others. Do you agree?

  Alithea Binnie : I do.

  Genie : This, then, is our fate, Alithea. If you make no wish at all, I will be caught between worlds, invisible and alone, for all time.

• [from trailer] 

  Alithea Binnie : I do have a question. What does one do with three wishes?

  Genie : You'll see.

• Alithea Binnie : I cannot, for the life of me, summon up one eligible wish. And you're asking me for three?

  Genie : Is there any life in you? Are you even alive?

  Alithea Binnie : You know, in some cultures, abstinence from desire means enlightenment!

  Genie : Then you are a pious fool!

  Alithea Binnie : If I'm content, why tempt fate?

  Genie : And you're a coward!

• Genie : Alithea, how can it be a mistake to love someone entirely?

• Genie : [pulls a man from the TV]  Would you like this little Albert Einstein?

  Alithea Binnie : No! No, no, no. That can't be good for him. Put him back!

  Genie : I could expand him. We could speak with him.

  Alithea Binnie : No, put him back!

  Genie : Is that a wish?

  Alithea Binnie : No, it's your obligation!

  [the genie sends Einstein back to the TV] 

• Alithea Binnie : This is the story you've been avoiding telling me all along.

  Genie : This is the story I've avoided telling even myself

• [from trailer] 

  Genie : MAKE A WISH! SAVE YOURSELF!

• [from trailer] 

  Alithea Binnie : You know, I'm beginning to wish we'd never met!

  [the flask cracks] 

  Genie : NO! DON'T SAY THAT!

• Alithea Binnie : Well, I'm beginning to think that I'm in the presence of a trickster.

  Genie : That would be so much better. My work would be so much easier. But the truth is, I am just an idiot who has been extravagantly unlucky.

  Alithea Binnie : Well, I have to take your word for that.

• Genie : I visited the Collider, an interesting gizmo...

• Genie : I was imprisoned by Solomon precisely because I cried out my heart's desire. Only by granting you yours may I earn my release!

• Genie : So, what would you wish for? What is your heart's desire?

  Alithea Binnie : Now, let's not get ahead of ourselves. I need to take this slow.

  Genie : I have all the time in the world.

• Genie : She began to rebel even against the gestures of submission that her husband required for she had acquired a mastery of love-craft, out of reach of any human that had not made love to a Djinn.

• Genie : What was the complexion of this husband?

  Alithea Binnie : His complexion? Uh, in the beginning, it was... glowing.

• Alithea Binnie : Do you know the answer to her question?

  Genie : What women most desire?

  Alithea Binnie : Yeah.

  Genie : Do you not know? If you don't know, I cannot tell you.

  Alithea Binnie : Well, surely we don't all want the same thing.

  Genie : Madam, your yearnings are not at all clear to me.

• Genie : She

  [Sheba] 

  Genie : was not beautiful, she was beauty itself.

• Alithea Binnie : I *will* make three wishes. I will.

  Genie : Before you die.

  Alithea Binnie : Right now. One after the other. Ready?

  Genie : Uh-huh.

  Alithea Binnie : Number one, I wish your headache were gone. Number two, I wish for a sip of this tea. And finally, I wish for another one of those.

• Genie : We exist only if we are REAL to others

• Alithea Binnie : Who was she?

  Genie : Sheba.

  Alithea Binnie : The queen of Sheba?

  Genie : She was my kin.

  Alithea Binnie : She was a djinn?

  Genie : Her mother was a Djinn.

  Alithea Binnie : Is that possible?

  Genie : There are laws that allow the union of djinn and mortals, but they cannot produce an immortal scion the way a donkey and a horse can only produce a seedless mule.

• Genie : I might have become more, but for Solomon.

  Alithea Binnie : King Solomon?

  Genie : Blessed be his memory. He came from across the deserts to woo her.

  Alithea Binnie : Didn't she go to him?

  Genie : No. Never.

  Alithea Binnie : But it's in all the holy books. All the stories and the paintings. And Handel wrote music about it.

  Genie : Madam, I was there. Solomon came to her.

• Alithea Binnie : So you are electromagnetic?

  Genie : As you are dust, I am made of subtle fire.

• Genie : Hope is a monster. And I am its plaything.