Fantasy and documentaries

You can see Arabian Nights: Volume 1, The Restless One - tonight at 7.30pm at the PeterboroughArtsCinema, John Clare Theatre.

Thisunconventionalblend of documentary and fantasy uses the stories-within-stories structure of the classic Arabian Nights to explore the lives of ordinarypeopleinausterity-stricken, contemporary Portugal.

Among the tales: A group of bankers discover a cure for impotence, a rooster is put on trial for crowing too early in the morning, and a group of jobless citizens go swimming on New Year’s Day.

Meanwhile t omorrow there is a special screening - from7.30pmoftwodocumentaries – Riot in the Blood and Common Ground, both createdbytheFieldTheatreGroup.

Riot in the Blood wascreatedtocommemoratethe200th anniversary of the Littleport Riots.

It tells the story of the tumultuous events that tore a town apart in 1816, and those who paid the ultimate price for their poverty and hunger.

Featuring eye-witness tes- timonies and newspaper accountsoftheday. Thefilmalso contains contributions from living descendants of the rioters.

Common Ground features landworkers in Fenland at the turn of the last century. It depicts scenes of Fen life in all its aspects - harsh, funny, bleak,and above all inspiring.

Featuring a cast of local community members, many of whom had never acted before, Common Ground was shot on location at Wicken Fen, Burnt Chimney Drove and Littleport. It is also our tribute to those generations of Fenlanderswhohavelivedand worked within this unique landscape.