0445 – The Promise (2016)

spacetime coordinates:  1915  small Armenian village of Sirun in the southeast part of the Ottoman Empire >  Constantinople / Istanbul,  Taurus mountains

The Promise is a 2016 American historical drama film directed by Terry George and starring Oscar Isaac, Charlotte Le Bon and Christian Bale, set in the final years of the Ottoman Empire. The entire budget  for the film was donated by American businessman of Armenian origin Kirk Kerkorian.

Ara Sarafian, director of the Gomidas Institute in London and a leading historian of the Armenian Genocide, praised the film for its historical accuracy. “The key themes were historically accurate,” he said. “The producers did not take license to go beyond the historical material at hand yet they managed to capture much of the enormity of the Armenian genocide.” Sarafian also commended director Terry George for his “well balanced and creditworthy” sense of history.

IMDb pre-release voting controversy

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt4776998/

437 – The Water Diviner (2014)

spacetime coordinates:  the Gallipoli Campaign // 1919 Australia > Ottoman EmpireThe Water Diviner is a 2014 American-Australian historical fictional war drama film directed by and starring Russell Crowe in his directorial debut. The film is loosely based on the book of the same name, written by Andrew Anastasios and Dr Meaghan Wilson-Anastasios. The film centres around Joshua Connor, an Australian farmer and water diviner  searching for traces of his three lost sons on the battlefield of Gallipoli (watch documentary here)

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt3007512/

193 – The Ottoman Lieutenant (2017)

spacetime coordinates: World War I Ottoman Empire

The Ottoman Lieutenant is a Turkish-American World War I drama film directed by Joseph Ruben and written by Jeff Stockwell. The film stars Michiel Huisman, Hera Hilmar, Josh Hartnett and Ben Kingsley.

Several critics criticized the film for perpetuating the denial of the Armenian Genocide. In his review for Variety Dennis Harvey writes, “[In] this primarily Turkish-funded production, the historical, political, ethnic and other intricacies — not to mention that perpetual elephant in the room, the Armenian Genocide, which commenced in 1915 — are glossed over in favor of a generalized ‘Whattaya gonna do… war is bad’ aura that implies conscience without actually saying anything.”

In his review of the film for Slant Magazine, Keith Watson writes, “More conspicuous than The Ottoman Lieutenant’s rote melodrama is the way the film elides the concurrent genocide of ethnic Armenians by Ottoman forces, a historical reality which the Turkish government continues to deny to this day.”, while critic Roger Moore called The Ottoman Lieutenant “a botched love-triangle romance set against a revisionist account of the Turkish Armenian Genocide.”

WIKI   IMDB

178

Inferno (2016)

spacetime coordinates: 2016  Florence, Italy //  Istanbul

inferno is a 2016 American mystery thriller film directed by Ron Howard and written by David Koepp, based on the 2013 novel of the same name by Dan Brown. The film is the sequel to The Da Vinci Code and Angels & Demons, and is the third installment in the Robert Langdon film series.

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Biological warfare in popular culture

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Botticelli – Inferno (2016 documentary)

Botticelli Inferno is a 2016 Italian-German documentary film directed by Ralph Loop. The film is part of the project Great Art Cinema and analyses one of the most mysterious works of Sandro Botticelli, the Map of Hell in the Divine Comedy Illustrated by Botticelli in the Vatican Library.  The map was originally part of an illustrated manuscript of Dante‘s Divine Comedy, featuring artwork by Botticcelli.

imdb

0111 – Season of the Witch (2011)

spacetime coordinates:  Villach in the year 1235 // 14th-century Holy Roman Empire// Styria // Wormwood forest

Season of the Witch is a 2011 American fantasy adventure film directed by Dominic Sena. starring Nicolas Cage, Ron Perlman and Claire Foy. The film draws inspiration from the 1957 film The Seventh Seal.

In the 14th century, Teutonic Knights Behmen von Bleibruck (Cage) and Felson (Perlman) are engaged on a crusade, taking part in several different battles throughout the 1330’s (1332 Gulf of Edremit, 1334 Siege of Tripoli, 1337 Imbros & 1339 Artah) and eventually in the Smyrniote crusades. After witnessing the massacre of civilians during the 1344 capture of Smyrna, the two knights desert the Order and the crusade and return to Austria.

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Wormwood, the name of the forest where blood is shed, is also the name of a destructive entity in the Bible. This entity, a star whose name also translates as Bitterness, appears to cause widespread illness. According to Revelation 8:10-11, “The third angel sounded his trumpet, and a great star, blazing like a torch, fell from the sky on a third of the rivers and on the springs of water–the name of the star is Wormwood. A third of the waters turned bitter, and many people died from the waters that had become bitter.”

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‘Season of the Witch’ Trailer HD

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imdb