2425 – Asphalt City (2023)

timespace coordinates: 2022  NYC night drive // night shift

Asphalt City (originally titled Black Flies) is a 2023 American thriller drama film directed by Jean-Stéphane Sauvaire and written by Ryan King and Ben Mac Brown, based on the 2008 novel Black Flies by Shannon Burke. It stars Sean Penn, Tye Sheridan, Gbenga Akinnagbe, Raquel Nave, Kali Reis, Michael Pitt, Katherine Waterston, and Mike Tyson.

Eric Ortiz Garcia of Screen Anarchy wrote that the film “finds its power reflecting the brutal level of stress inherent in this profession … Sauvaire makes his mission explicit: to raise awareness about those paramedics who are completely overwhelmed. That’s something the filmmaker achieves.” Tori Brazier of Metro wrote, “Black Flies is a grim tale, and not a recommended watch for the more delicate cinema fan, but its message and lack of subtlety certainly hit home.” (wiki)

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2400 – Poor Things (2023)

timespace coordinates: (retrofuturistic) Victorian London >Lisbon >Alexandria >Paris

Poor Things is a 2023 film directed by Yorgos Lanthimos and written by Tony McNamara. It stars Emma Stone, Mark Ruffalo, Willem Dafoe, Ramy Youssef, Christopher Abbott, and Jerrod Carmichael. Based on the 1992 novel by Alasdair Gray, (wiki)

imdb   //   rt   //   brain transplant

2376 – The Fall (TV Series 2013–2016)

timespace coordinates: 2012 Belfast

The Fall is a crime drama television series filmed and set in Northern Ireland. The series, starring Gillian Anderson as Detective Superintendent Stella Gibson, is created and written by Allan Cubitt and features Jamie Dornan as serial killer Paul Spector. (wiki)

imdb   //   rt   //   future

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Damaged (2024 VOD)

timespace coordinates: 2023 Scotland

starring Samuel L. Jackson and Vincent Cassel.

imdb   //   rt   //   wiki

2326 – Desperation Road (2023)

Southern Noir thriller set in a tough-and-tumble Mississippi town written by Michael Farris Smith, directed by Nadine Crocker and starring Willa Fitzgerald, Garrett Hedlund and Mel Gibson. It is based on the novel of the same name by Smith.

imdb   //  wiki

2311 – The Last Voyage of the Demeter (2023)

timespace coordinates: July – August 1897 Varna, Bulgaria > Whitby, North Yorkshire / London, England

The Last Voyage of the Demeter is a 2023 supernatural horror film directed by André Øvredal and written by Bragi F. Schut Jr. and Zak Olkewicz. It is an adaptation of “The Captain’s Log”, a chapter from the 1897 novel Dracula by Bram Stoker.

The film stars Corey Hawkins, Aisling Franciosi, Liam Cunningham, and David Dastmalchian. Its plot follows the doomed crew of the merchant ship Demeter led by Captain Elliot (Cunningham) who attempt to survive the treacherous ocean voyage from Bulgaria to England while being stalked by a legendary vampire, known as Dracula (Javier Botet). (wiki)

imdb

2186 – The Woman King (2022)

spacetime coordinates: 1820’s the West African kingdom of Dahomey

The Woman King is a 2022 American historical epic film about the Agojie, the all-female warrior unit that protected the West African kingdom of Dahomey during the 17th to 19th centuries. The film stars Viola Davis as a general who trains the next generation of warriors to fight their enemies. It is directed by Gina Prince-Bythewood and written by Dana Stevens, based on a story she wrote with Maria Bello. The film also stars Thuso Mbedu, Lashana Lynch, Sheila Atim, and John Boyega.

(historical accuracy) John Boyega plays King Ghezo, a real-life figure who ruled Dahomey from 1818 to 1858 and engaged in the Atlantic slave trade through the end of his reign. Hero Fiennes Tiffin plays the white Portuguese-speaking slave trader Santo Ferreira who is fictional and portrayed as an enemy to Ghezo. History vs. Hollywood said the character was “possibly loosely inspired” by Francisco Félix de Sousa, a Brazilian slave trader who in actuality helped Ghezo gain power.

Historically, Dahomey was a kingdom that conquered other African states and enslaved their citizens to sell in the Atlantic slave trade, and most of the kingdom’s wealth was derived from slavery. The Agojie had a history of participating in slave raiding, and slavery in Dahomey persisted after the British Empire stopped Dahomey from continuing in the Atlantic slave trade.

In the film’s setting of the 1820s, Nanisca confronts Ghezo about the immorality of selling Dahomey slaves to the Portuguese and suggests trading in palm oil production instead. Nanisca being fictional, the confrontation did not take place. Smithsonian wrote, “Though Ghezo did at one point explore palm oil production as an alternative source of revenue, it proved far less lucrative, and the king soon resumed Dahomey’s participation in the slave trade.” wiki

The film does not mention or depict the Kingdom of Dahomey’s practice of human sacrifice. (read more: A look at Dahomey’s gory history of human sacrifices on a large scale)

The all-woman Dora Milaje regiment featured in Black Panther is based on the Dahomey warriors.

imdb   /   rottentomatoes

2180 – Christiane F. – Wir Kinder vom Bahnhof Zoo (1981)

spacetime coordinates: 1975 – 1977 in West Berlin

Natja Brunckhorst Characters: Christiane Film: Christiane F. Wir Kinder Vom Bahnhof Zoo We Children From Bahnhof Zoo Christiane F. DE 1981 Director: Uli Edel 02 April 1981 Christiane F. – Wir Kinder vom Bahnhof Zoo BRD 1981, Regie Uli Edel Natja Brunckhorst / Filmplakat, Plakat, Poster, Filmposter PUBLICATIONxINxGERxSUIxAUTxONLY Copyright: MaryxEvansxAFxArchivexConstantinxFilm 12468751 editorial use only

Christiane F. (German: Christiane F. – Wir Kinder vom Bahnhof Zoo) is a 1981 German biographical drama film directed by Uli Edel that portrays the descent of Christiane Felscherinow, a bored 13-year-old growing up in mid-1970s West Berlin, to a 14-year-old heroin addict. Based on the 1978 non-fiction book Wir Kinder vom Bahnhof Zoo (We Children from Zoo Station), transcribed and edited from tape recordings by Kai Hermann and Horst Rieck, the film immediately acquired cult status and features David Bowie as both composer and as himself. In 2013, Felscherinow published her autobiography Christiane F. – My Second Life.

The film was shot with a low budget in 1980 and released in 1981, but set between 1975 and 1977 in West Berlin. It skips the beginning and the end of the book, and concentrates on the main story, starting when Christiane begins her nightlife in Berlin at around 13 years old, and stops rather abruptly after her suicide attempt by stating that she recovered. In the real story, Christiane F. never fully recovered from her addiction, nor did her troubles end with going to Hamburg to begin withdrawal.

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The cast is composed mainly of first-time actors, most of whom were still in school at the time and have mostly not pursued acting careers since. Natja Brunckhorst is the only cast member who continued to act in German films and television. Real life “Stella” (Catherine Schabeck), aged 18 at the time, has a short cameo as the drug dealer that sells the first dose of heroin to Detlev. Most of the extras at the railway station and at SOUND were actual drug users and prostitutes. It would now be illegal to have minors act in the film’s graphic shoot-up, nudity and sex scenes; at the time, however, all the production needed was a written letter of consent from the parents to proceed with filming.

Bowie’s music from his albums made in Berlin during 1976 and 1977 is played throughout the picture, and as he was at the peak of his popularity during the late 1970s and early 1980s, his presence helped boost the film’s commercial success. (wiki)

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