Baghdad, 809. The city is ruled by Caliph Harun al-Rashid, to whom the beautiful and spiritual Scheherazade has been promised. Envoys from Charlemagne arrive at court to request free access to Christian holy sites. Among them travels the knight Renaud Villecroix, who falls in love with her. When the grand vizier, the caliph's enemy, ambushes a traveling party and takes Scheherazade prisoner, Renaud rescues her and flees with her into the desert.

How it was made

Directed by Pierre Gaspard-Huit from a screenplay by Marc-Gilbert Sauvajon, the film is a co-production between Spain, Italy and France, and is presented as a loose adaptation of One Thousand and One Nights. Serge Silberman produced, André Hossein composed the score, and Christian Matras and André Domage shot the cinematography. The sets and costumes were designed by Georges Wakhévitch. Anna Karina leads an international cast that includes Gérard Barray, António Vilar and Giuliano Gemma, and Jean-Luc Godard also appears among the performers.

Reception and legacy

The film was released in France on May 15, 1963, where it was the 46th highest-grossing film of the year, selling 1,375,848 tickets. In Poland it sold a great many tickets and ranked among the thirteen highest-grossing foreign films there.