Død Snø 2 (Dead Snow 2: Red vs. Dead)

The Nazis have risen from the dead, killed your friends, taken your girl, taken your arm, and left you blamed for their crimes.  To make matter worse, the local doctors have sewn a zombie arm onto your stump, and it keeps killing people.

Who can you turn to when the Nazis advance on town?  Your Allies, of course - an American Zombie Squad and your own horde of undead Soviet soldiers.  It's time to kick some Nazi zombie ass.

Død Snø 2 (Dead Snow 2: Red vs. Dead)
2014, 100 minutes, directed by Tommy Wirkola

They filmed the Norwegian-language scenes twice, so the North American release will be in English.  Fantastic Fest showed the subtitled international release.

Errors of the Human Body

Geoff (Michael Eklund) is a controversial geneticist due to his research into embryo screening, based on (and using) the death of his newborn son to a unique genetic defect.  Former student Rebekka (Karoline Herfurth) lures him to the Max Planck Institute in Dresden after he's forced out of work in the U.S.  Slowly he realizes that there's some Days-of-Our-Lives-style backstabbing and intrigue going on at the institute - I say slowly because it took me a while to realize that this was the real plot instead of more exposition - and he steps right into it, while also dealing with the loss of his ex-wife and rekindling of an old affair with Rebekka.  Then the plot wakes up and gets very personal for Geoff, and it seems like the climax has passed and the film will end.  Only at this point it doesn't; the denouement is stretched out for 30 minutes so the writers can make one final point before they let the film end.

There's very little sci fi at Fantastic Fest this year.  Vanishing Waves is the best of the two I've seen, with Errors of the Human Body a disappointing second due to pacing issues.  I shouldn't spend the first part of the film wondering when it will finally start, and the last part of the film wondering when it will finally end.  I totally wanted to love this film and I didn't.

Errors of the Human Body
2012, 100 minutes, directed by Eron Sheean 

Iron Sky

In a world where Sarah Palin is president, the Moon Nazis return...

Iron Sky
2012, 93 minutes, directed by Timo Vuorensola

I spent an hour in line chatting with acting hopeful Samantha Davilry.  I'm noting her name so I can keep an eye out for film credits.  Good luck!

Urban Explorer

Double tap, damnit.  Stupid people.

Urban Explorer
2011, 88 minutes, directed by Andy Fetscher

A Film Unfinished

Found reels of a propaganda film from Nazi Germany show contrasting scenes of staged prosperity with real poverty in the Warsaw ghetto, May 1942, not long before it was destroyed and most of its inhabitants sent to their deaths.

But this isn't shown in isolation.  To complement, contrast, and counter the propaganda film, the documentary producers use the incredibly-detailed diaries of the Jewish superintendent of the ghetto, as he was ordered to take part in and witness filming.  They also include comments from survivors viewing the film (and recalling the filming), German reports and records, and even transcripts of testimony of one of the cameramen, the only one of the filmmakers ever uncovered.

With the film never finished, the purpose of the contrasting scenes may never be known, but the film nevertheless gives vision to the final days of a half million Jews starving in the three square miles of the Warsaw ghetto.

45 years later, an outtake reel was found, with repeated takes of "documentary" scenes until the Germans considered them realistic enough, along with images of the cameramen caught in each others' lenses.

You should see this.

A Film Unfinished
2010, 88 minutes, directed by Yael Hersonski

Krabat

This middle-ages sorcery tale drags in at two full hours long. While it's a good story - and would make a great novel, it's a bit slow for the screen. I did enjoy the imagery.

Krabat
2008, 120 minutes, directed by Marco Kreuzpaintner