0317 – Sunshine (1999)

spacetime coordinates:  late 19th century > mid-20th century Hungary

Sunshine is a 1999 historical drama film directed by István Szabó and written by Israel Horovitz and Szabó. It follows five generations of a Hungarian Jewish family, originally named Sonnenschein (German: “sunshine”), later changed to Sors (Hungarian: “fate”), during changes in Hungary, focusing mostly on the three generations from the late 19th century through the mid-20th century. The family story traverses the creation of the Austro-Hungarian Empire through to the period after the 1956 Revolution, while the characters are forced to surrender much of their identity and endure family conflict. The central male protagonist of all three generations is portrayed by Ralph Fiennes. The film’s stars include Rachel Weisz and John Neville, with the real-life daughter and mother team of Jennifer Ehle and Rosemary Harris playing the same character across a six-decade storyline.

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0145503/

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sunshine_(1999_film)

0316 – Kolberg (1945)

spacetime coordinates: 1807 Kolberg (Kołobrzeg) //  1945 Germany

Kolberg is a 1945 German historical film directed by Veit Harlan. One of the last films of the Third Reich, it was intended as a Nazi propaganda piece to bolster the will of the German population to resist the Allies.

The film is based on the autobiography of Joachim Nettelbeck, mayor of Kolberg in Pomerania, and on a play drawn from the book by Paul Heyse. It tells the story of the defence of the besieged fortress town of Kolberg against French troops between mid-March and July 2, 1807, during the Napoleonic Wars. In reality, the city’s defense, led by then-Lieutenant Colonel August von Gneisenau, held out until the war was ended by the Treaty of Tilsit. In the film, the French abandon the siege.

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0036989/

315 – Hannah Arendt (2012)

spacetime coordinates: 1961 New York // Israel

Hannah Arendt is a 2012 German-Luxembourgish-French biographical drama film directed by Margarethe von Trotta and starring Barbara Sukowa. The film centers in the life of German-Jewish philosopher and political theorist Hannah Arendt. The film centers on Arendt’s response to the 1961 trial of ex-Nazi Adolf Eichmann, which she covered for The New Yorker. Her writing on the trial became controversial for its depiction of both Eichmann and the Jewish councils, and for its introduction of Arendt’s now-famous concept of “the banality of evil“.

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1674773/

304 – Oblivion (2013)

spacetime coordinates: 2077 New York CityOblivion is a 2013 American post-apocalyptic science fiction film based on Joseph Kosinski‘s unpublished Radical Publishing graphic novel of the same name. The film was co-produced and directed by Kosinski.  It stars Tom Cruise, Morgan Freeman, Andrea Riseborough, and Olga Kurylenko.    According to Kosinski, Oblivion pays homage to science fiction films of the 1970s.

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1483013/

0302 – Sicario (2015)

spacetime coordinates: 2010  Chandler, Arizona // El Paso, Texas // Ciudad Juárez, Mexico

Sicario (Spanish: “Hitman”) is a 2015 American crime-thriller film directed by Denis Villeneuve, written by Taylor Sheridan and starring Emily Blunt, Benicio del Toro, Josh Brolin and Victor Garber. The film follows a principled FBI agent who is enlisted by a government task force to bring down the leader of a powerful and brutal Mexican drug cartel.

A sequel, Soldado, began shooting in November 2016 and will be released in June 2018.

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt3397884/

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