1958 – Big Fish (2003)

spacetime coordinates: 2003 >> 40’s 50’s 60’s 70’s 80’s Alabama

Big Fish is a 2003 American fantasy comedy-drama film directed by Tim Burton, and based on the 1998 novel of the same name by Daniel Wallace. The film stars Ewan McGregor, Albert Finney, Billy Crudup, Jessica Lange, Helena Bonham Carter, Alison Lohman, Robert Guillaume, Marion Cotillard, Steve Buscemi, and Danny DeVito. The film tells the story of a frustrated son who tries to distinguish fact from fiction in his dying father’s life.

Big Fish was shot on location in Alabama in a series of fairy tale vignettes evoking the tone of a Southern Gothic fantasy. (wiki)

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1954 – Panique au village (2009)

A Town Called Panic (French: Panique au village) is a 2009 internationally co-produced stop-motion animated adventure fantasy comedy family film directed by Stéphane Aubier and Vincent Patar.

The film is based on the TV series of the same name and stars Aubier, Jeanne Balibar, Nicolas Buysse, Véronique Dumont, Bruce Ellison, Frédéric Jannin, Bouli Lanners, and Patar, among others. It premiered at the 2009 Cannes Film Festival and was the first stop-motion film to be screened at the festival.

Empire magazine were very positive awarding the film 4 stars, summing it up as “Toy Story on absinthe” (wiki)

imdb    /   Le making-of (accéléré)

1949 – O Brother, Where Art Thou? (2000)

spacetime coordinates: 1937 rural Mississippi during the Great Depression

O Brother, Where Art Thou? is a 2000 crime comedy-drama film written, produced, co-edited and directed by Joel and Ethan Coen, and starring George Clooney, John Turturro, and Tim Blake Nelson, with Chris Thomas King, John Goodman, Holly Hunter, and Charles Durning in supporting roles.

The film is a modern satire loosely based on Homer‘s epic Greek poem The Odyssey that incorporates social features of the American South. The title of the film is a reference to the Preston Sturges 1941 film Sullivan’s Travels, in which the protagonist is a director who wants to film O Brother, Where Art Thou?, a fictitious book about the Great Depression. (wiki)

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1940 – Rebelle (2012)

spacetime coordinates: civil war in sub-Saharan Africa

War Witch (French: Rebelle) is a 2012 Canadian dramatic war film written and directed by Kim Nguyen and starring Rachel Mwanza, Alain Lino Mic Eli Bastien and Serge Kanyinda. It is about a child soldier forced into a civil war in Africa, and who is believed to be a witch. The film was primarily shot in the Democratic Republic of the Congo in French and Lingala. (wiki)

imdb   /   rottentomatoes

1905

Kingdom (TV Series 2019– )

spacetime coordinates: Set during Korea’s Joseon Dynasty, three years after the Imjin War. (the Japanese invasions of Korea 1592–1598 – three years after the famous “Battle of Unpo Wetland”)

Kingdom (Korean: 킹덤; RR: Kingdeom) is a 2019 South Korean political period horror thriller streaming television series, created and written by Kim Eun-hee and directed by Kim Seong-hun and Park In-je. The series is adapted from the webcomic series The Kingdom of the Gods, which was authored by Kim Eun-hee and drawn by Yang Kyung-il.

Set on a fictional, medieval-inspired Joseon, Kingdom explores the story of a Crown Prince, as he sets to investigate the source of a mysterious plague that begins to ravage his country. It stars Ju Ji-hoon, Ryu Seung-ryong, Bae Doo-na, Kim Sang-ho, Kim Sung-kyu and Kim Hye-jun. // wiki // imdb)

A special feature-length episode of the series, titled

Kingdom: Ashin of the North (TV Episode 2021)

was released on July 23, 2021 and focused on the supporting character Ashin played by Jun Ji-hyun.

The episode acts as a sidequel to the second season of Kingdom and explores the backstory of Ashin, the mysterious heir of the Northern Seongjeoyain tribe village, and the origin of the resurrection plant that triggered an unprecedented cascade of tragic events that swept through the Kingdom of Joseon. // wiki // imdb

1893 – Katla (2021– TV series)

spacetime coordinates: a year after an eruption of the Katla volcano began, the nearby village of Vík,  Iceland

Katla (stylized as KATLA) is an Icelandic drama/mystery/sci-fi television series created and directed by Baltasar Kormákur and Sigurjón Kjartansson, and written by Baltasar Kormákur, Sigurjón Kjartansson, Davíð Már Stefánsson and Lilja Sigurðardóttir. It premiered June 17, 2021 on Netflix. (wiki)

imdb   /   rottentomatoes

1884 – Nomadland (2020)

timespace coordinates: early 2010’s American West (Nevada, Arizona, South Dakota, Nebraska, California)

Nomadland is a 2020 American drama film based on the 2017 non-fiction book Nomadland: Surviving America in the Twenty-First Century by Jessica Bruder. The film is written, produced, directed, and edited by Chloé Zhao, and stars Frances McDormand (who is also a producer on the film) as a vandwelling working nomad who leaves her hometown after her husband dies and the sole industry closes down, to be “houseless” and travel around the United States. 

A number of real-life nomads appear as fictionalized versions of themselves, including Linda May, Swankie, and Bob Wells. (wiki)

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