The Rose of Baghdad

Princess Zeila, daughter of the caliph Oman, is preparing to review the nobles who want her hand. In the shadows the ill meaning Prince Jafar is laying his own plan. The young musician Amin sets out to make love win, with help from the genie of the lamp. The story rests on a classic fairy tale shape, and music and song form its backbone. The line between good and bad is clear from the start, and the film draws its tension from spectacle rather than from event. The palace, the desert and the flying carpet are built on hand painted backgrounds, and colour comes as far forward as the story itself. Anton Gino Domenighini’s seventy six minute Italian animation was completed in 1949.