0983 – The Man Who Killed Hitler and Then The Bigfoot (2019)

The year is 1987. Calvin Barr (a too-great-for-words Sam Elliott) is not a violent man. But he is more than capable of violence if sufficiently provoked. What many don’t realize about the thoughtful, elderly bloke regularly seen at the neighbourhood tavern is that he’s a legendary WW2 veteran who many years ago assassinated Adolf Hitler, an incredible secret that he’s frustratingly unable to share. One day, just as he’s coming to terms with rounding out his life, Calvin gets a visit from the FBI and the RCMP. They know what he’s done, and what he can be capable of. They have a mission for him. After discovering that it harbours a disease capable of eradicating humanity… they need him to take out Bigfoot.

A wondrous feature debut from writer/director Robert D. Krzykowski, featuring visual effects by celebrated two-time Academy Award Winner Douglas Trumbull (2001: A SPACE ODYSSEY, BLADE RUNNER), who also co-produced alongside the great John Sayles and Lucky McKee, and a supporting cast that includes Aidan Turner (THE HOBBIT trilogy), Caitlin FitzGerald (ALWAYS SHINE), Ron Livingston (THE CONJURING), Sean Bridgers (ROOM) and Rizwan Manji (PATERSON), this is one special film. A fantastical discourse on the melancholia of old age and a singular blast of entertaining wit, THE MAN WHO KILLED HITLER AND THEN THE BIGFOOT bubbles with imagination and poignancy. It’s a work that stands as staunchly alone as the weather-beaten hero at its core. It will bowl you over like a forgotten beast deep in the Northern wilderness. – Mitch Davis //fantasiafestival

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0981 – Defiance (2008)

timespace coordinates: the occupation of Belarus by Nazi Germany

Defiance is a 2008 American war film directed by Edward Zwick set during the occupation of Belarus by Nazi Germany. The screenplay by Clayton Frohman and Zwick was based on Nechama Tec‘s 1993 book Defiance: The Bielski Partisans, an account of the Bielski partisans, a group led by Belarusian Jewish brothers who saved and recruited Jews in Belarus during the Second World War. The film stars Daniel Craig as Tuvia Bielski, Liev Schreiber as Zus Bielski, Jamie Bell as Asael Bielski, and George MacKay as Aron Bielski. (wiki)

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0980 – At Eternity’s Gate (2018)

timespace coordinates: 1888 – 1890 Arles – Saint-Rémy – Auvers-sur-Oise

At Eternity’s Gate is a 2018 biographical drama film about the final years of painter Vincent van Gogh‘s life. The film is directed by Julian Schnabel, from a screenplay by Schnabel, Louise Kugelberg and Jean-Claude Carrière. It stars Willem Dafoe as van Gogh, Rupert Friend, Oscar Isaac, Mads Mikkelsen, Mathieu Amalric, Emmanuelle Seigner and Niels Arestrup. (wiki)

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967 – 1492: Conquest of Paradise (1992)

timespace coordinates: 1490s Spain,  the Bahamas

1492: Conquest of Paradise (in French, 1492 : Christophe Colomb) is a 1992 English-language French-Spanish epic historical drama film directed by Ridley Scott and written by Roselyne Bosch, which tells the fictionalized story of the travels to the New World by the Italian explorer Christopher Columbus (Gérard Depardieu) and the effect this had on the indigenous peoples of the Americas.

historical accuracy   /   imdb

0962 – Overlord (2018)

timespace coordinates: June, 1944  Nazi occupied France

Overlord is a 2018 American war horror / period Nazi zombie shoot-’em-up film directed by Julius Avery and written by Billy Ray and Mark L. Smith. It stars Jovan Adepo, Wyatt Russell, Mathilde Ollivier, John Magaro, Gianny Taufer, Pilou Asbæk, and Bokeem Woodbine. The film was produced by J. J. Abrams, through his Bad Robot Productions banner, and Lindsey Weber. The plot follows several American soldiers who are dropped behind enemy lines the day before D-Day and discover secret Nazi experiments. (wiki)

The title of the film is, no doubt, in reference to Operation Overlord, the codename for the Allied operation for the Battle of Normandy, which launched the successful invasion of Nazi-occupied Europe. This, alongside Operation Neptune, would become known as D-Day.

imdb   /   rottentomatoes

0956 – Mortal Engines (2018)

timespace coordinates: Following a cataclysmic conflict known as the Sixty Minute War, the remnants of humanity regroup and form mobile “predator” cities. Under a philosophy known as “Municipal Darwinism”, larger cities hunt and absorb smaller settlements in the “Great Hunting Ground”, which includes Great Britain and Continental Europe. In opposition, settlements of the “Anti-Traction League” have developed an alternative civilization consisting of “static settlements” (traditional, non-mobile cities) in Asia led by Shan Guo (formerly China), protected by the “Shield Wall”.

“After the Ancients destroyed themselves in the Sixty Minute War, there were several thousand years in which nothing much happened. These were the Black Centuries. The great civilizations of the Screen Age had been utterly swept away, and humanity was reduced to a few scattered bands of savages’ ‘The Traction Codex’

Mortal Engines is a 2018 post-apocalyptic adventure film directed by Christian Rivers and with a screenplay by Fran Walsh, Philippa Boyens and Peter Jackson, based on the novel of the same name by Philip Reeve, and starring Hugo Weaving, Hera Hilmar, Robert Sheehan, Jihae, Ronan Raftery, Leila George, Patrick Malahide, and Stephen Lang. An American–New Zealand co-production, the film is set in a post-apocalyptic world where entire cities have been mounted on wheels and motorised, and prey on one another. (wiki)

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955 – The 13th Warrior (1999)

timespace coordinates: 922 A.D Kievan Rus’ > Scandinavia

The 13th Warrior is a 1999 American historical fiction action film based on Michael Crichton‘s novel Eaters of the Dead, which is a loose retelling of the tale of Beowulf combined with Ahmad ibn Fadlan‘s historical account of the Volga Vikings. It stars Antonio Banderas as Ahmad ibn Fadlan, as well as Diane Venora and Omar Sharif. It was directed by John McTiernan. Crichton directed some reshoots uncredited. (wiki)

“Atmospheric, great sets and costumes, but thin plot.” (rt)

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Ibn Fadlān and the Land of Darkness: Arab Travellers in the Far North