0746 – The Island (2005)

timespace coordinates: 2019 Arizona > Los Angeles

The Island is a 2005 American science fiction thriller film directed and co-produced by Michael Bay. It stars Ewan McGregor, Scarlett Johansson, Djimon Hounsou, Sean Bean, Michael Clarke Duncan and Steve Buscemi.

In the story, Lincoln Six Echo (McGregor) struggles to fit into the highly structured world he lives in, isolated in a compound, and the series of events that unfold when he questions how truthful that world is. After Lincoln learns the compound inhabitants are clones used for organ harvesting as well as surrogates for wealthy people in the outside world, he attempts to escape with Jordan Two Delta (Johansson) and expose the illegal cloning movement.

The Island has been described as a pastiche of “escape-from-dystopia” science fiction films of the 1960s and 1970s, such as Fahrenheit 451, THX 1138, Parts: The Clonus Horror, and Logan’s Run. (wiki)

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745 – Aferim! (2015)

timespace coordinates: 1835 Wallachia

Aferim! (English: Bravo!) is a 2015 Romanian drama/western film directed by Radu Jude. The film is set in Wallachia in the early 19th century, when a local gendarme, Costandin, is hired by Iordache, a boyar, to find Carfin, a Gypsy slave who had run away from the boyar’s estate after having an affair with his wife, Sultana. Aferim! (2015) is only the second Romanian film to address the Roma slavery, which existed in Wallachia for almost 500 years until 1856. (The first one was the silent film Fata tigani in dormitor (1923). It has apparently been lost, with only a few stills surviving.)

The story is fictional, but director Radu Jude said in the NY Times (Sept. 8, 2015) that he drew on the historical record. Before shooting began, he held a script reading with 20 historians and made adjustments in response to their input.Publication The Hollywood Reporter describes Radu Jude’s film as “a harsh lesson of history, relieved by overlooked humor and classic Western elements”. Variety magazine writes that Aferim! is “an exceptional and extremely intelligent insight into a crucial period of history, a film equally inspired and furious” (wiki)

imdb   /   rottentomatoes

0740 – Mary Magdalene (2018)

timespace coordinates: Judea, 33 AD.

Mary Magdalene is a 2018 biblical drama film about the woman of the same name, written by Helen Edmundson and Philippa Goslett and directed by Garth Davis. It stars Rooney Mara, Joaquin Phoenix, Chiwetel Ejiofor and Tahar Rahim. It is the last film score completed by composer Jóhann Jóhannsson before his death.

Mary Magdalene, starring Rooney Mara as the titular character, sought to reverse the centuries-old portrayal of Mary Magdalene as a repentant prostitute, while also combating the conspiracy claims of her being Jesus’s wife or sexual partner. Instead, the film portrays her as Jesus’s closest disciple and the only one who truly understands his teachings. This portrayal is partially based on the Gnostic Gospel of Mary Magdalene. The film, which described as having a “strongly feminist bent”, was praised for its music score and cinematography, its surprising faithfulness to the Biblical narrative, and its acting, but was criticized as slow-moving, overwritten, and too solemn to be believable. 

imdb   /    liberation theology

739 – The Last King /Birkebeinerne (2016)

timespace coordinates: Norway 1206The Last King (Norwegian: Birkebeinerne) is a 2015 Norwegian historical drama, directed by Nils Gaup.  The film centers on the efforts of the Birkebeiner loyalists to protect the infant, Haakon Haakonsson, who was an heir to the Norwegian throne after the death of his father, King Haakon Sverresson. The film is set during the civil war era in Norway during the 13th-century. 

A story inspired by true events. Norway 1204, Birkebeiners and king Haakon Sverresson possess the throne in Nidaros. They are threaten by Baglers, that has taken power in Eastern Norway, with the help from Denmark among the refugees is the king’s son and heir, Haakon Haakonsson, who is fostered in secret by Inga of Varteig. (wiki)

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0730 – The Objective (2008)

timespace coordinates: 2001 Ghazni Province, Afghanistan

The Objective is a 2008 american-moroccan science fiction horror film directed by Daniel Myrick  starring Jonas Ball, Matthew R. Anderson, and Michael C. Williams. (wiki)

A team of U.S. Special Ops forces is dispatched to a remote mountain region of Afghanistan with the ostensible orders of locating an influential Muslim cleric. While on the mission they find themselves lost in a Middle Eastern “Bermuda Triangle” and faced with an enemy that none of them could have imagined. (rt)

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vimana // the vimana epics

0699 – The Lone Ranger (2013)

timespace coordinates: 1933  San Francisco / 1869  Texas

The Lone Ranger is a 2013 American western action comedy directed by Gore Verbinski from a screenplay written by Justin Haythe, Ted Elliott, and Terry Rossio. Based on the radio series of the same name, the film stars Johnny Depp as Tonto, the narrator of the events, and Armie Hammer as John Reid, the Lone Ranger. It relates Tonto’s memories of the duo’s earliest efforts to subdue local villainy and bring justice to the American Old West.  It is the first theatrical film featuring the Lone Ranger and Tonto characters in the more than 32 years following William A. Fraker‘s 1981 film, The Legend of the Lone Ranger.

Johnny Depp’s make-up and costume were inspired by artist Kirby Sattler’s painting “I am Crow.”

The film was originally supposed to have a plot focusing more on supernatural elements and Native American mysticism. This mainly would’ve taken the form of werewolves, which would’ve explained the silver bullets. However, this draft was supposedly part of the initial 250 million dollar proposal that Disney quickly cancelled after John Carter (2012) underperformed. When the project was revamped to meet Disney’s approval, it came more in line with the current script. (read more: Trivia)

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“nature is indeed out of balance”

imdb    Comanche   /   wendigo

0693 – Sweet Country (2017)

timespace coordinates: Australia’s Northern Territory frontier in the 1920’s

Sweet Country is a 2017 Australian film directed by Warwick Thornton. It is set in 1929 in the outback of the Northern Territory, Australia.

imdb   rottentomatoes