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The Green Knight’s Headed to Theatres This Summer

Gawain is the hero, and he must do what the other’s can’t–to take on a giant.

Elevation Pictures
Director: David Lowery

Anyone who has studied the Gawain and the Green Knight in school will be in for a treat!

Few filmmakers have adapted the poem, and its reimagining has been long overdue. No Doctor Who reference is intended here, but rather what’s needed is a focus on making this retelling a tale of horror. It’s an unusual take in an otherwise medieval morality play.

Gawain (Dev Patel) is the hero, and he must do what the others can’t–to take on a giant who symbolizes Nature. The Christian symbolism in the trailer is notable, and as for whether King Arthur and his court are challenging their own demons or they simply know Camelot is coming to an end, the ideas aren’t likely to stray far from the source material. New to the canon is a fox, and perhaps a spiritual antagonist in the form of a fox.

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Reading Undergods as a Post Apocalyptic Gothic Thriller

The best bits are when the film cuts back to the future and K and Z discuss amongst themselves what it all means.

Undergods

By Ed Sum (The Vintage Tempest)

Playing at Fantasia Digital Film Festival 2020 on Sept 2, 5:00 PST. Buy your virtual ticket here.

SPOILER ALERT

Chino Moya’s Undergods has everything I want in a horror anthology. The plan was to build a utopian future, but somehow, along the way, paradise is lost. What we see is a the post apocalyptic world of Eastern Europe. The stories K (Johann Myers) and Z (Géza Röhrig) tell each other–as they search for bodies (lost souls)–is their odd way of consoling each other.

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Hedgehog’s Home finds its way to The NFB Homestead Dec 17th!

Not everyone understands what “home” is. A fox, wolf, bear, and boar berate Hedgehog after finding what his den is made of and try to understand why his home is different to their

Undergods By Ed Sum
(The Vintage Tempest)

All hail the Mighty Hedgehog! No, we are not talking about Sonic from the video games, but rather an innocuous creature of the woods, as imagined by poet Branko Ćopić. Simply titled Hedgehog’s Home, this stop-motion animated short has numerous accolades. It was spotlighted at many a film festival including Annecy and New York back in 2017, and how it’s making permanent residency on the free media servers of the National Film Board of Canada

The music takes some cues from the Wild West and perhaps even the narrative too. As someone from that era might say, “There ain’t no place like home.” Homesteaders back then had to stand their ground against resistance. Whether that’s over land ownership, against others (bullies) or against the aggressive climate (making a new life was not easy), many a theme can be explored. Ćopić‘s tale comes out of his experiences from native Yugoslavia, post-World War II and the folk tradition.

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