Ali Baba und die 40 Räuber

It's surprising for me but i honestly must give "10" to this french production.

For 3 hours, i get stuck to my TV, gone a long time ago, in a far, far away ... land and having fun with all those characters! This Ali Baba gets us back into Irak around 9th century, greatly done with bright colors, beautiful houses and locations!

The story is unspeakable but this is the proof of great storytelling: like the classic soap, there's a lot of back-stories which are all tangled altogether! You don't have the time to catch your breath! Regarding the cast, I admit a bias for Leila but the others are excellent.

Some could argue the entire cast wasn't Arabic! Having Gugnot who is the symbolic native Frenchman as the lead actor would seem shocking! It's like having a white man playing MLK.

In the same way, you don't hear or see Muslim beliefs but rather Christian faith!

But i prefer to enjoy this fairy comedy as a great first steps to raise interest and understanding towards this civilization, so don't be a fool: DVD player, Open !

Gerard Jugnot as Ali Baba. This is the key of this nice version , mixing political aspects of IX century, cash between Orient and Occident, jealousy and adventures, preserving only few episodes from original story and seducing, in easy manner , as reasonable entertainement reminding, for three hours, the fascination of kid front the old fairy tales narrated by grandfather.

In fact, this the frame - a grandfather teing to his granddaughter the story of family and discovering than the girl knows more clear some essential...aspects.

In short, reminding in few moments the Italian adaptations of fairy tales, the French multidiversity and the fair mix of magic and humor, it is just charming miniseries.