Tag: insects
1077 – Gräns / Border (2018)
timespace coordinates: 2010’s Sweden

Border (Swedish: Gräns) is a 2018 Swedish fantasy film directed by Ali Abbasi with a screenplay by Abbasi, Isabella Eklöf and John Ajvide Lindqvist based on the short story of the same name by Ajvide Lindqvist from his anthology Let the Old Dreams Die.
imdb / rottentomatoes / OST / Troll
http://liminal.earth/ (Liminal Cartography)
1059 – Mutafukaz (2017)
timespace coordinates: 2010’s Dark Meat City / New California

Mutafukaz (Japanese: ムタフカズ -MUTAFUKAZ- Hepburn: Mutafukazu, released as MFKZ in some markets) is a 2017 adult animated science fiction film based on the comic series of the same name.
The film is a French-Japanese co-production between Ankama Animations and Studio 4°C and is directed by Shōjirō Nishimi and Guillaume “Run” Renard.
The comic was published in English as Mutafukaz by Titan Comics with only one volume released on October 27, 2015. Mutafukaz was released in France on May 23, 2018 and in Japan on October 12, 2018. (wiki)
Angelino is just one of thousands of deadbeats living in Dark Meat City. But an otherwise unremarkable scooter accident caused by a beautiful, mysterious stranger is about to transform his life… into a waking nightmare! He starts seeing monstrous forms prowling around all over the city… Is Angelino losing his mind, or could an alien invasion really be happening this quietly…? (imdb)

THE ART OF MUTAFUKAZ – THE MOVIE
1048 – Enemy (2013)
timespace coordinates: 2000’s Mississauga, Ontario
“Chaos is order yet undeciphered”
Enemy is a 2013 Canadian-Spanish psychological thriller film directed by Denis Villeneuve, produced by M. A. Faura and Niv Fichman and written by Javier Gullón, loosely adapted from José Saramago‘s 2002 novel The Double. The film stars Jake Gyllenhaal in a dual role as two men who are physically identical, but different in personality. Mélanie Laurent, Sarah Gadon, and Isabella Rossellini co-star. (wiki)

Analysis / Analysis
1045 – The Mist (2007)
timespace coordinates: 2000’s small town of Bridgton, Maine

The Mist (also known as Stephen King’s The Mist) is a 2007 American science-fiction horror film based on the 1980 book The Mist by Stephen King. The film was written and directed by Frank Darabont. Darabont had been interested in adapting The Mist for the big screen since the 1980s. The film features an ensemble cast including Thomas Jane, Marcia Gay Harden, Samuel Witwer, Toby Jones, and future The Walking Dead actors Jeffrey DeMunn, Laurie Holden, Melissa McBride, and Juan Gabriel Pareja. Darabont has since revealed that he had “always had it in mind to shoot The Mist in black and white”, a decision inspired by such iconic films as Night of the Living Dead (1968) and the “pre-color” work of Ray Harryhausen. While the film’s cinematic release was in color, the director has described the black and white print (released on Blu-ray in 2008) as his “preferred version.”
The director revised the ending of the film to be darker than the novella’s ending, a change to which King was amenable. Darabont also sought unique creature designs to differentiate them from his creatures in past films.
Although a monster movie, the central theme explores what ordinary people will be driven to do under extraordinary circumstances. The plot revolves around members of the small town of Bridgton, Maine who, after a severe thunderstorm causes the power to go out the night before, meet in a supermarket to pick up supplies. While they struggle to survive, an unnatural mist envelops the town and conceals vicious, Lovecraftian monsters as extreme tensions rise among the survivors.

A meta-reference to this film appears in one of Stephen King’s later novels, Under the Dome. (wiki) / [The Mist (TV series) imdb]
1024 – The Golden Compass (2007)
timespace coordinates: parallel universe – Victorian Jordan College in Oxford > retrofuturistic London > experimental station Bolvanga – far North
The Golden Compass is a 2007 fantasy adventure film based on Northern Lights, the first novel in Philip Pullman’s trilogy His Dark Materials. Written and directed by Chris Weitz, it stars Nicole Kidman, Dakota Blue Richards, Daniel Craig, Sam Elliott, Eva Green, and Ian McKellen.
The film depicts the adventures of Lyra Belacqua, an orphan living in a parallel universe where a dogmatic ruling power called the Magisterium opposes free inquiry. Children in that universe are being kidnapped by an unknown group called the Gobblers who are supported by the Magisterium. Lyra joins a tribe of sea-farers on a trip to the far North, the land of the armoured polar bears, in search of the missing children.
Before its release, the film received criticism from secularist organisations and fans of the His Dark Materials trilogy for the dilution of elements of the story which were critical of religion, as well as from some religious organisations for the source material’s anti-religious themes. The studio ordered significant changes late in post-production, which Weitz later called a “terrible” experience. Although the film’s visual effects won both a BAFTA and an Academy Award, critical reception was mixed and revenue lower than anticipated. The film trilogy has not been continued, prompting actor Sam Elliott to blame censorship and the Catholic Church. (wiki)
Video game The game was released prior to the film and features a slightly different sequence of events towards the end of the story, as well as additional footage at the end of the game not seen in the film. (playthrough)
Controversies / Cancelled sequels
imdb / His Dark Materials (TV Series 2019– )
1754 – La Belle Sauvage (2017 novel)
1793 – The Secret Commonwealth (The Book of Dust #2 – 2019)
0964 – Grave of the Fireflies (1988)
timespace coordinates: 1945 Kobe, Japan

Grave of the Fireflies (火垂るの墓 Hotaru no Haka) is a 1988 Japanese animated war film based on the 1967 semi-autobiographical short story of the same name by Akiyuki Nosaka. It was written and directed by Isao Takahata, and animated by Studio Ghibli for the story’s publisher Shinchosha Publishing. The film stars Tsutomu Tatsumi, Ayano Shiraishi, Yoshiko Shinohara and Akemi Yamaguchi. The film tells the story of two siblings, Seita and Setsuko, and their desperate struggle to survive during the final months of the Second World War.
The Grave of the Fireflies is commonly described as an anti-war film, but this interpretation has been denied by the director. (wiki)
