Pasolini's “trilogy of life” included The Decameron, 1970, The Canterbury Tales, 1971 and The Arabian Nights, 1974. Pasolini rooted this magic carpet fantasy in the kind of realism which he consistently drew from landscapes (here, in Yemen, Ethiopia, Iran and Nepal) and the faces of his largely nonprofessional, native casts. Ninetto Davoli and Franco Citti--two Pasolini discoveries--are again featured in key roles, Davoli particularly memorable as the sad-sack Aziz who abandons his wife on their wedding day after being lured off by a mysterious beauty. As the sassy Zumurrud, “Ines Pellegrina (in her) her first role is a treat in spontaneous grace and physical beauty.” (Variety) The tales are marbled throughout with the good-natured sexuality and unabashed nudity with which Pasolini approaches the Arab proverb, “To the pure, all things are pure.”