299 – Love (2011)

spacetime coordinates:  1864 battle of the American Civil War // 2039 – 2045  International Space Station (ISS) 

Love is a 2011 science fiction drama film produced and scored by the alternative rock band Angels & Airwaves. The film is the directorial debut of filmmaker William Eubank.  The film was screened in 460 theatres across the United States on August 10, 2011, in the Love Live event.

Love portrays the personal-psychological effects of isolation and loneliness when an astronaut becomes stranded in space and through this, emphasizes the importance of human connection and love. Additionally, it touches on the fragility of humanity’s existence(explored through a dying Earth-apocalyptic doomsday scenario) inspired by the cautions of Carl Sagan in Pale Blue Dot and considers the importance of memories and stories as humanity’s legacy.

wiki       imdb

0298 – Valerian and the City of a Thousand Planets (2017)

spacetime coordinates:  28th century.  former International Space Station now “Alpha”, a space-traveling city where millions of creatures from different planets live peacefully and exchange their knowledge and cultures.

Valerian and the City of a Thousand Planets (French: Valérian et la Cité des mille planètes) is a 2017 English-language French 3D science fiction adventure film written and directed by Luc Besson, and co-produced by Besson and his wife, Virginie Besson-Silla. The film is based on the French science fiction comics series Valérian and Laureline, written by Pierre Christin and illustrated by Jean-Claude Mézières. It stars Dane DeHaan as Valerian and Cara Delevingne as Laureline, with Clive Owen, Rihanna, Ethan Hawke, Herbie Hancock, Kris Wu and Rutger Hauer in supporting roles. Besson independently crowd-sourced and personally funded Valerian and, with a production budget of around $180 million, it is both the most expensive European and independent film ever made.

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt2239822/

295 – Vals Im Bashir (2008)

spacetime coordinates: 1982 Lebanon War

Waltz with Bashir (Hebrew: ואלס עם באשיר‎‎, translit. Vals Im Bashir) is a 2008 Israeli animated war documentary film written and directed by Ari Folman. It depicts Folman in search of his lost memories of his experience as a soldier in the 1982 Lebanon War.

Artist David Polonsky is right handed, but did most of the illustration for this film with his left hand, as he felt that his original drawing were ‘too pretty. The comics medium, in particular Joe Sacco, the novels Catch-22, The Adventures of Wesley Jackson, and Slaughterhouse-Five, and painter Otto Dix were mentioned by Folman and art director David Polonsky as influences on the film. The film itself was adapted into a graphic novel in 2009.

The original soundtrack was composed by minimalist electronic musician Max Richter

The film is officially banned in Lebanon.

In 1982, Ari Folman was a 19-year-old IDF infantry soldier. In 2006, he meets with a friend from that period, who tells him of the nightmares he’s having connected to his experiences from the Lebanon War. Folman is surprised to find that he recalls nothing from that period. Later that night he has a vision from the night of the Sabra and Shatila massacre, the reality of which he is unable to clearly recall. In his memory, he and his soldier comrades are bathing at night by the seaside in Beirut under the light of flares descending over the city…

imdb       wikipedia

0275 – The Beguiled (2017)

spacetime coordinates: 1864 – a girls school in Virginia during the American Civil War. 

The Beguiled is a 2017 American drama film written and directed by Sofia Coppola, based on the novel of the same name (originally published as A Painted Devil) by Thomas P. Cullinan. It stars Colin Farrell, Nicole Kidman, Kirsten Dunst and Elle Fanning. A film of the same name, also based on Cullinan’s book, was released in 1971.

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt5592248/

0269 – A Taxi Driver // Taeksi Woonjunsa (2017)

spacetime coordinates: 1980  Gwangju / Seoul

A Taxi Driver (Hangul: 택시운전사; Hanja: 택시運轉士; RR: Taeksi Unjeonsa) is a 2017 South Korean historical action drama film directed by Jang Hoon, with Song Kang-ho starring in the title role, alongside Thomas Kretschmann.

A taxi driver from Seoul, accidentally gets involved in a German journalist’s reporting of the events of the Gwangju Democratization Movement, also called the Gwangju Uprising, in 1980.

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt6878038/

264 – American Sniper (2014)

spacetime coordinates:  1998 – 2013 Texas,  Iraq War

American Sniper is a 2014 American biographical war drama film  directed by Clint Eastwood and written by Jason Hall. It is loosely based on the memoir American Sniper: The Autobiography of the Most Lethal Sniper in U.S. Military History (2012) by Chris Kyle, with Scott McEwen and Jim DeFelice. The film follows the life of Kyle, who became the deadliest marksman in U.S. military history with 255 kills from four tours in the Iraq War, 160 of which were officially confirmed by the Department of Defense. While Kyle was celebrated for his military successes, his tours of duty took a heavy toll on his personal and family life.w

critical_response (wiki)

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt2179136/

261 – The Keeping Room (2014)

spacetime coordinates: the american south, 1865

The Keeping Room is a 2014 American  western | thriller film directed by Daniel Barber and written by Julia Hart. The film stars Brit Marling, Hailee Steinfeld, Muna Otaru, Sam Worthington, Amy Nuttall, and Ned Dennehy.

Left without men in the dying days of the American Civil War, three Southern women—two white sisters and one African-American slave—must fight to defend their home and themselves from two rogue soldiers who have broken off from the fast-approaching Union Army.

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt2488778/