2450 – Godzilla Minus One (2023)

timespace coordinates: 1945-47 (postwar) Japan

Godzilla Minus One (ゴジラ-1.0マイナスワン, Gojira Mainasu Wan) is a 2023 Japanese epic kaiju film written, directed, and with visual effects by Takashi Yamazaki. Produced by Toho Studios and Robot Communications and distributed by Toho, it is the 37th film in the Godzilla franchise, Toho’s 33rd Godzilla film, and the fifth film in the franchise’s Reiwa era.

The film stars Ryunosuke Kamiki, Minami Hamabe, Yuki Yamada, Munetaka Aoki, Hidetaka Yoshioka, Sakura Ando and Kuranosuke Sasaki. Set in postwar Japan, it follows a former kamikaze pilot suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder after encountering a giant monster known as “Godzilla“.

Godzilla Minus One is widely considered one of the best films of 2023 and among the greatest Godzilla movies ever made. (wiki)

imdb   //   Writing and influences   //   Black-and-white edition

2436 – The Ascent / Восхождение (1977)

timespace coodinates: during the Great Patriotic War in a Belarussian village

Director: Larisa Shepitko

Languages: Russian

Cinematography: Pavel Lebeshev, Vladimir Chukhnov

“During the Great Patriotic War (World War II), two Soviet partisans, Sotnikov (Boris Plotnikov) and Rybak (Vladimir Gostyukhin) go to a Belarusian village in search of food. After taking a farm animal from the collaborationist headman (Sergei Yakovlev), they head back to their unit, but are spotted by a German patrol. After a protracted gunfight in the snow in which one of the Germans is killed, the two men get away, but Sotnikov is shot in the leg. Rybak has to take him to the nearest shelter, the home of Demchikha (Lyudmila Polyakova), the mother of three young children. However, they are discovered and captured.” (wiki)

“Larisa Shepitko’s emotionally overwhelming final film [completed two years before her untimely death at 41 in a car crash] won the Golden Bear at the 1977 Berlin Film Festival and has been hailed around the world as the finest Soviet film of its decade. Set during World War II’s darkest days, The Ascent follows the path of two peasant soldiers, cut off from their troop, who trudge through the snowy backwoods of Belarus seeking refuge among villagers. Their harrowing trek leads them on a journey of betrayal, heroism, and ultimate transcendence.” —Janus Films

2343 – A Haunting in Venice (2023)

timespace coordinates: 1947 Venice

 Haunting in Venice is a 2023 American mystery film produced and directed by Kenneth Branagh from a screenplay by Michael Green, loosely based on the 1969 Agatha Christie novel Hallowe’en Party. It serves as a sequel to Death on the Nile and Murder on the Orient Express, in which Branagh reprises his role as the Belgian detective Hercule Poirot. The ensemble cast includes Kyle Allen, Camille Cottin, Jamie Dornan, Tina Fey, Jude Hill, Ali Khan, Emma Laird, Kelly Reilly, Riccardo Scamarcio, and Michelle Yeoh. (wiki)

imdb   /   rottentomatoes

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“In Venice, we say, Every house is haunted or cursed.”

2337 – Golda (2023)

timespace coordinates: Agranat Commission /October 1973 Israel / Yom Kippur War aka the 1973 Arab–Israeli War

Golda is a 2023 biographical drama film directed by Guy Nattiv and written by Nicholas Martin. The film depicts the life of Golda Meir, the 4th Prime Minister of Israel, particularly during the Yom Kippur War. It stars Helen Mirren, Camille Cottin and Liev Schreiber. (wiki)

imdb   //   rt

2268 – Sisu (2022)

spacetime coordinates: the Lapland War, 1944

Sisu is a 2022 Finnish historical action film written and directed by Jalmari Helander. Set in Lapland during World War II, the film follows a gold prospector who attempts to secure his gold and defend himself from a German death squad led by a brutal SS officer. The film stars Jorma Tommila, Aksel Hennie, Jack Doolan and Mimosa Willamo.

According to Helander, the 1982 American action film First Blood and the real-life Finnish military sniper Simo Häyhä, who fought against the Red Army, served as great inspirations for the film. (wiki)

imdb   //   rt

1850 – How to Disappear by Total Refusal (anti-war short movie 2020)

“How to Disappear” is an anti-war movie in the true sense of the word, searching for possibilities for peace in the most unlikely place of an online war game. It’s a tribute to disobedience and desertion – in both digital and physical-real warfare.

About Total Refusal

Total Refusal is an open artists’ collective which criticizes and artistically appropriates contemporary video games. However, as most mainstream game narratives employ the same infinite loops of reactionary tropes, the genre largely fails to challenge the values of their players and instead affirms hegemonial moral concepts. Acknowledging that this media is currently not realizing its cultural potential, we aim to appropriate digital game spaces and put them to new use. Moving within games but casting aside the intended gameplay, we rededicate these resources to new activities and narratives, looking to create “public” spaces with a critical potential.

Perpetual Peace Project

Perpetual Peace: A Philosophical Sketch (German: Zum ewigen Frieden. Ein philosophischer Entwurf) 1795 by Immanuel Kant