#i cannot remember the url off my head otherwise i would Tag

[haomnyangz]

edmund, the entirety of prince caspian:

[omniscientoranges]

Thank you @that-one-fandom-chick for tagging me! *mwah*

RULES: Answer 30 questions and tag 20 blogs you are contractually obligated to know better.

I am actually not going to tag anyone lmao, and by that I mean if you want to do this and are seeing this, this is your free pass to do it! I am spiritually tagging anyone and everyone go forth and be perceived

Putting this under a cut since it is a little long

1. Name/Nickname: Gina. When I did sports sometimes people would call me "G" because like, idk jock stuff.

2. Gender: female, she/her

3. Star Sign: pisces sun, scorpio moon/rising (I know nothing about astrology but my friends that do always tell me I do Not act like a pisces)

4. Height: 5'9" but I pretend to be 5'10" for clout

5. Time: atm it is nearly 12am

6. Birthday: March 13th (very soon!!)

7. Favorite Bands: oof these next two are where I reveal I don't listen to a lot of music. Bleachers, fun., Tally Hall, The Mountain Goats, P!atd, Bowling for Soup, FOB, Green Day

8. Favorite Solo Artists: Hozier, Mitski, Lorde, (can't think of any other solo artists 😬. I really do genuinely not listen to a lot of music and I know this is strange)

9. Song Stuck in My Head: You & Me by Tally Hall

10. Last Movie I Watched: technically ww84 even though I was not paying attention for half of it

11. Last Show I Watched: Supernatural (did a full rewatch a like 2 months ago)

12. When Did I Create This Blog: according to tumblr memories, 11/02/2014 at 5:21:53 PM

13. What I Post: currently supernatural stuff but I have been known to post critical role/mcelroys/general podcast stuff.

14. Last Thing I Googled: colin firth taron egerton (was trying to remember the name of the kingsman movies lmao)

15. Other Blogs: I have a post limit blog @dudecas but it has never seen use beyond me accidentally reblogging stuff to there sometimes

16. Do I Get Asks: Sometimes!

17. Why I Chose My Url: Cannot remember, I think I wanted it to be alliteration and just. landed on this somehow. The forbidden knowledge lost to time

18. Following: oh I am about to EXPOSE myself. It's 57. Idk how ppl follow hundreds/thousands of blogs that is SO overwhelming.

19. Followers: [redacted] But, these are basically ALL spn followers since I never really posted much until thee nov. 5th. I always wonder how many followers ppl assume I have so like, if you want sound off in my asks and guess and I'll tell you if you're close

20. Average Hours of Sleep: anywhere from 6-10 hours.

21. Lucky Number: I don't really have one? I used 56 when I played softball so,,, that one.

22. Instruments: in school I played bassoon for 7 years and trombone for 3. I could probably pick up the bassoon again even though I haven't played in like 2 years, but I Hated trombone so screw playing that again.

23. What Am I Wearing: Just some generic jeans and a hozier crew neck I got from his concert last october (like, 2019 october)

24. Dream Trip: Oh man. It boils down to I want to touch old monuments so maybe Rome? China?

25. Favorite Food: Anything potato based

26. Nationality: American :/

27. Favorite Song: not applicable lmao, it's much too difficult to pick one

28. Last Book I Read: I started On the Road recently so I'm saying that because otherwise it would just be something for school

29. Top Three Fictional Universes I'd Live In: POKÉMON. I want pokémon so badly you wouldn't believe. Other than that, probably some Magic Is Real universe or some Space Travel Is Possible and Affordable universe.

30. Favorite Color: Blue 💙 (pretty close to my current blog color tbh)

[haynr]

all blog info below the cut, 

apologies now to my mobile users 

RULES 

Before we interact you must…

have a properly displayed muse

have easily accessible posted information regarding your muse in a section or page

have easily accessible posted rules / guidelines in a section or page 

for AU’s, you must have posted information regarding your muse within the fandom universe in its own section or page

make sure I am following you

cut threads

I Won’t

roleplay sex, generally. there may be a few exceptions, but keep the standard that i probably won’t. sexual content, perhaps, if all muns involved are over 18. If we do, it is with the understanding muses involved will be aged up appropriately. 

tolerate any sexual advances toward myself ooc

roleplay inserts

always follow back, nor will I follow personals

tolerate pressuring, be it to rp in general or consistent pestering to answer threads

answer everything in my inbox. It’s not often I ignore asks, but I won’t answer something if it violates my rules. If I have difficulty answering something, I will privately message senders or make public inquires about anonymous messages. 

follow everyone back / interact with everyone, even if you technically follow all my rules. i’m selective. 

Please Don’t:

reblog meme asks. I don’t mind this so much, but it keeps things cleaner when they’re moved to a new post. 

reblog inbox answers for non starter memes. examples would be mun opinions and the like but extend to headcanons and other writing. violators will be asked to delete the post and may be blocked. 

reblog threads you are not a part of. warnings will be given to violating rp blogs, but personals will be instantly blocked. 

reblog personal posts, especial images of myself. violators will be instantly blocked. this means anything tagged ooc. 

force ships with me. I am a p easy going shipper, but I will be a bit more restrictive with Hayner. most of it has to do with his muse in general. he’s not thinking about romance atm. if it comes up in plot, great. if it doesn’t, you’re more than welcome to put it forward, but please do not expect me to go along with it. on that note, don’t expect me to always agree with your interpretations of my muse in ships. ideas and suggestions are fine, your own take is fine, but i cannot stress enough, please do not push hcs. 

I am open to

multiple threads

duplicates of other muses (i do not rp duplicates of my own muse, but I usually have other muses in the fandom which I will be more than happy to interact with there, no twins etc) 

shipping, though I will be highly selective, possibly exclusive. I will not instant ship, but I don’t mind developing our muses’ relationship privately over DMs. 

mutli verse and/or polyshipping as befits all the muses and muns involved

rping toxic relationships of any sort, will be tagged accordingly and placed under cuts.

angst and/or triggering threads, though I would prefer to discuss  the thread and tagging beforehand

crack threads

select AUs

ask/tagged initiated threads/starters but I ask for some warning if they are not from a meme or other prompt

responses of any length, so long as it is enough to reasonably work with for the pace of our thread

group threads

generally questionable plots. regardless of whether or not I approve of such practices ooc isn’t usually relevant. this is fictional, exploration of an idea– not a real-world execution of that idea. Feel free to DM for details.  

Please Also Note:

I do not require length to be matched and may not always match partner’s length. I will respond as much as I feel I am able to or that I feel is necessary. 

If my response is inadequate, difficult to respond to, or otherwise distasteful, FEEL FREE to ask me to redo my response.

Understand that my selectivity will depend on my comfort level and that I am not obligated to explain myself.

I tag all my threads as “thread”

I tag my partner’s url

if partner’s url changes, I will tag both old and new urls for the first response then only the new url going forward.

I generally tag triggers as “trigger tw”. same with general cw’s. i’m not the best with tagging, so let me know if I should watch for stuff in particular

my activity is generally a joke, but I’m constantly lurking, so feel free to drop a message

I am incredibly anxious. It doesn’t matter if we have late night conversations for like a month straight i will still be afraid to talk to you every. single. time. so always feel free to come whack me on the head or smth

while I can be very laid back / crack-ish, I do prefer to explore darker themes and my thread responses are much more serious than I come off as. 

Blacklisted / Ask to Tag:

food

nsfw (for general safe scrolling, just let me know what your tag is since t simply wont show not safe for wombats content anymore) 

“little space” related

“daddy,” “mommy,” etc

literally anything in this vein. in the vaguest, most removed sense. idc what you tag it. either let me know or just tag it “jade don’t look” whatever.

in fact feel free to tag any and all of these as just “jade don’t look” or some variant.

a/o/b related 

anything pregnancy related

vivid depiction of sensory / memory alteration (particularly in images, but not excluded to)

unreality (also especially, but not limited to, images)

Of course I can’t require people tag these, but I will most likely not follow you if your post these regularly and do not have some warning which will be picked up by blacklist applications.

In regards to the sensory alteration, I mean things like seeing/hearing/etc things that aren’t there, mis-remembering or outright tampering with memory, etc. It’s kind of situation to situation on what gets me, but when it does it tends to hit me pretty hard. If you have any questions about it, fire away! [ example text post ]

On unreality, this somewhat relates to the above, I use this as a catch all phrase for images, vivid descriptions, and most especially videos/gifs of things that basically don’t behave or seem to behave as they should. Sometimes, I’ve seen these things tagged as “trippy” and the like, but they those posts tend to be too…idk how to put it. Extra? What tends to get me is when things are going fairly linear and then suddenly go for a loop. That’s not the greatest description, but here’s a few posts that have triggered me the worst that I’ve slowly gotten used to.  There are also things which should seem fine or normal but aren’t. If anyone has a better description for this, by all means let me know! example posts [ one ] / [ two ] /  [ three ] + a weird image that also gets me for some reason. hmvent is actually a blog I use to store things that trigger me so I can slowly get used to them or try and figure out what it is / why these things get to me.

META 

Hayner is a young lad who resides in the sleepy Twilight Town. He is described as “impulsive and determined, and is always looking for a new adventure. He is bold to the point of recklessness…He gets bored easily during uneventful times… also easily angered/irked…thirsts for some kind of recognition…” During the events of KHII, he is 15, the same as Roxas/Sora. He has deep brown eyes, dirty blond hair and is a bit tall and, while still skinny, muscular for his age. He is the leader of his quartet trio including Pence, Olette and Roxas himself.

While he does have parents, he’s rather distant from them. While he does receive support from his folks, they were just never really there. Because of this, his loyalties lie greatly with his chosen family, his friends. He considers it his duty to help, lead and, if needed, protect them, even if he’d never admit as much even to himself. If any of his actions or ideas end up hurting someone he cares about, he takes it very much to heart, often beating himself up about it for weeks and weeks after.

Hayner, despite his hotheadedness and brashness, is a very observant leader. His tough guy act, while not entirely based on this, is partially to build himself up, make other less inclined to pick fights with him and his friends. Whether or not this works out, however, is certainly debatable. He also does his best to incorporate his friends’ wants and needs– or at least what he perceives these as– into his plans.

As oblivious as he may seem, he is quite mindful of the people around him. Whether it’s picking out the shady figure on that street corner or this one, or noticing some random kid’s not having a good day - he sees a lot of it, but often it doesn’t strike as a huge priority. He thinks things through a lot more than he’s credited for, but unfortunately, he doesn’t go through the whole process before starting his plan of action.

Hayner also isn’t exactly the most social person. He is outgoing and nice to people out of politeness and giving people the benefit of the doubt, but as a whole he’d much rather just stick with his friends. The only exception to this has been Sora, as he feels a “familiar vibe” about him, and therefore is also open to his circle of friends.

A couple more misc hcs below:

Is a very exceptional swordsman (at least with the training swords). However, his skills do not seem as outstanding compared to that of Roxas and other more major characters.

As much as he hates school, his best subject science. And although one would think he’d be a good athlete because he is competitive, he actually doesn’t have good PE grades because he doesn’t try if he doesn’t have to. The only way to get him to really participate is to make it a competition.

MORE WILL BE ADDED MARCH, 2019 TO INCLUDE SPOILERS FOR KH3

AU Info will be added shortly. 

[a-brighter-yellow]

Rules: answer 30 questions and tag 30 blogs you would like to get to know better

Tagged by: @homosociallyyours (thanks, love!!)

Nickname(s): My name is uncommon, so I don’t really have any

Gender: Female

Zodiac: On the cusp of Aquarius and Pisces (I’m definitely more of the former)

Height: 5′4″

Coffee, tea or hot chocolate: Coffee, always coffee. With almond milk and Splenda (I KNOW) in the morning; iced from Dunkin; at Starbucks, a caramel macchiato

Fav band(s): Hanson, One Direction, The Killers, Jonas Brothers (FIGHT ME) 

Fav solo artist(s): Robbie Williams, Harry Styles, Matt Nathanson, Niall Horan, Jason Mraz, Kris Allen, Bruno Mars, Robyn, Beyonce

Song stuck in my head: Matt’s “Kill The Lights” thanks to @crinkle-eyed-boo‘s Own The Scars time stamp. I’m enjoying every second of it though.

Last movie I saw: I rewatch The Social Network the other night and it’s still perfect. It and Jesse were robbed af at the Oscars that year.

Last show I saw:  I don’t know if this is theater or TV, but I’ll give you both. I’m mid-7th season in my Cheers rewatch because sitcoms are a dying art and it’s probably the best one ever made. And I saw Children Of A Lesser God on stage a couple weekends ago and stage doored Joshua Jackson because I’m Team Pacey in every way possible.

When did I create my blog: 2011, though I didn’t really use it properly until 2012. And still don’t, actually.

What do I post: My Tumblr is basically a receptacle for my obsessions; I rarely post anything original. I don’t know why I bother tagging Harry anymore, since this blog is 90% him. Otherwise: Louis, Niall, Liam, and other 1D stuff, The X-Files, fic recs/to reads, Doctor Who, Stucky, etc.

Last thing I googled: I was working on a rundown of Scandal’s wildest moments, so I spent a lot of time on the Wikia last night trying to remember/unravel plots from the first few seasons. 

Do I have any other blogs: Off-Tumblr, I have headoverfeels.com, which I run with @crinkle-eyed-boo. And I tried for about 5 minutes to run @harryforhedwig, a campaign for Harry to play Hedwig Robinson on Broadway. (PICTURE IT.)

Do I get asks: Almost never. But I posted my first fic a few weeks ago and got a couple of messages from that and it’s THE BEST feeling? Send me asks, I’m addicted now!

Why did I choose my url: It’s from a Jason Mraz song that always makes me happy.

Following: 962

Followed by: 171, and I can’t believe any of you are here.

Favorite color(s): A bright yellow, obvs. And deep red.

Average hours of sleep: I’m a gigantic baby who needs sleep - usually 7-8, if I can manage it.

Lucky number: I don’t have one. Should I have one?

Instruments: I played piano as a child, very poorly.

What I’m wearing: Fleece pj pants and a sweatshirt that says “Kylo Ren is a punk bitch.”

Dream job: Being independently wealthy and left alone.

Dream trip: I don’t have a ready answer for this one, but I’d like to see more of Eastern Europe.

Fav food: Cereal, french fries, caesar salad, pad see ew, peanut butter

Nationality: Italian, Romanian, German, Welsh, English, and probably more, but those are the biggies.

Fav song: “Under Pressure”

Last book I read: I’m in the middle of re-reading the Golden Compass series and I’d forgotten how metal those books are. Finished The Subtle Knife earlier this week, on Amber Spyglass now. I cannot wait for this new miniseries to give it the treatment it deserves. (The World Only Spins Forward, the history of Angels In America, is on deck.)

Last fanfic I read: anonymous said, a very sweet You’ve Got Mail-esque Larry fic.

Random fact: I have kids names picked out even though I do not under any circumstances want to have kids. So if anyone needs some extras, hit me up.

There’s no way I’m tagging 30 people, so @crinkle-eyed-boo @disgruntledkittenface @louvedup @somanylayers @whynotsara @amentet901 @rebeccazoe @hollywoodtwit, plus anyone else who wants to give it a go.

[hydrus]

Version 310

windows

zip

exe

os x

app

tar.gz

linux

tar.gz

source

tar.gz

I had a productive week. A bunch of stuff is fixed, and I finished a first version of multi-file url downloading.

multi-file support

A limitation of the old download system is that it always assumed a single 'post URL' could only ever produce a single file. This week, I have added full support for multi-files-per-post-URL to the new downloader. If a new parser generates multiple 'downloadable' URLs, the file import queue will generate and insert new download objects for each. Tags and associable URLs should all be passed along to the children as appropriate.

As a result, I can finally roll out support for several sites that provide files in this way. I've updated the inkbunny post parser, and added twitter tweet and artstation post parsers, so all these should now be drag-and-droppable onto the client. The twitter parser only supports images--no videos yet. The inkbunny parser may put its multi-files slightly out of order, and in one of my tests it pulled the artist profile picture as well, so it may need some tweaking. IB have a proper API, but it requires some login stuff, so I will look at that again when I have the new login system done.

And of course I have added a pixiv manga parser, which has been highly requested for a long time. This was fairly complicated, but I think I got all the referral URLs and tags lined up correct. It can even add 1-indexed page tags. Unfortunately, pixiv just changed my test login to the new (currently broken) JSON/javascript layout just today, as I did final testing. If it turns out pixiv have switched everyone over to the broken layout on the very day I finally roll out manga support, I think my head is going to explode, but even if so, I am confident the javascript layout is parsable--it'll just take a bit more work. I expect to have a fix for all pixiv users for v311 if another user doesn't post one sooner.

This multi-file parsing is a first version. There may be bugs, so please let me know. I also don't really like how the initial post URLs' file import objects get counted as 'successful' like a regular file, so I may make a new 'successfully parsed' type to distinguish them a bit and alter the file progress counts appropriately.

misc

The new 'x% in' video thumbnail generation works better and fails better now, including some better workflow and error-reporting when regen is manually started by the user. If you had some videos that failed to import or regen last week, please try them again and let me know if you still have problems.

The multiple watcher now has a 'check now' button.

I added a semi-crazy prototype checkbox to options->gui that puts all your page tabs on the left. It needs a restart to kick in. Test it at your own risk.

The new download system now informs the new network engine of file limits in your 'file import options'! So, if you say 'don't get gifs bitter than 32MB', and the server clearly identifies a newly started download as a gif with size 50MB, the download will be abandoned and a veto/ignored status set immediately! It also works with the regular min/max filesize as appropriate. Let me know if it goes wrong!

I cleaned up some file repository thumbnail sync and display code all around.

github

Github got bought by Microsoft, so I am considering migrating somewhere else. I only use Github as a file/code host and the workflow of syncing there is easy, so I may or may not go, or may just put it off and see what happens during the transition. I am interested in your thoughts on the whole deal and what you think of the alternatives.

full list

updated the inkbunny file page url class to acknowledge that inbunny pages can have multiple files

updated the inkbunny file page parser to handle multiple file urls (although they may be out of order and possibly sometimes include the artist profile image--this was not super easy)

added a parser for twitter tweets (only images supported atm, but it can handle multiple!) (hence tweet drag and drop now works!)

updated the artstation file page url class to redirect to a new api url class

wrote an artstation file page parser that also handles multiple file urls

updated/added pixiv file page, manga page, and mange_big url classes

updated pixiv file page parsers to be ok with manga links

wrote parsers for pixiv manga and manga_big pages to fetch manga files (with page tags)!

file import objects can now create semi-duplicate children for multi-file post urls and insert them just after themselves in the file import queue.

file import objects can now receive and remember referral urls. this referral url is associated with the file if appropriate. the watcher and simple downloader now uses this in addition to the multi-file post system

jumbled around some parameters and merged the two new file import url commands (import 'file' vs import 'post') into one single simple 'work on this url, thanks' call that is now used across the program

the parsing system's 'content parser' no longer fetches file urls and post urls, but 'download urls' and 'source urls'. this helps some pipeline logic and also lets post urls be download urls

when file import objects parse post urls as the urls to download, it now creates 1-n new import objects, just like if multiple file urls.

improved some file import object file association code

the new parsing system will de-dupe parsed urls

refactored the 'seed' code, which handles all basic file import objects, to the new ClientImportSeeds.py

added a new string transformation type, 'integer addition', for shifting page number tags up and down

fixed thumbnail generation for some videos that failed to do the new x%-in generation--it reverts more reliably just to the old frame 0 method

file reparsing popup now has a stop button

fixed an issue where extremely thin or wide (ratio > 200:1) images would not generate a full-size or resized thumbnail

the file reparsing/re-thumbnailing now reports errors better (including with full path) and does not abandon the larger job as it works

misc thumbnail generation code improvements

improved some thumbnail and file regeneration/moving code when the existing file has read-only status

the multiple watcher now has a 'check now' button

added a checkbox to options->gui that will put new notebook page tabs on the left

for all file download network jobs working in the new download system, the file import options for min size, max size, and max size (gifs) are now applied _during the download_! if the server tells the client the exact file size in the response headers, it will test max and min size before the content is actually downloaded--otherwise, it will test the max size as it downloads. if the server clearly says the file is a gif, the max gif size rules will also be tested in the same way

cleaned up some bandwidth announcement code--now, if bandwidth is due in less time than override time, that will now correctly be the status text

the bandwidth status no longer says 'in in' typo

fixed up some tag repair code from last week

the 'print garbage' debug function now dumps a whole bunch more data to the log

the thumbnail cache should now be a bit more stoic about missing repository thumbnails--it should now just present the hydrus default backup without error popup spam

the repository thumbnail sync will now get as thumbs in blocks as high as 10k at a time, rather than the old 100

hydrus network requests no longer generate web domain network contexts (and so won't have a default one-request-per-second bandwidth limit and should stream through thumbnails a bit faster)

hydrus network services are now willing to wait longer for bandwidth, so big thumbnail queues should keep working even if other bottlenecks pause them for a bit

hydrus network services will no longer sometimes have double-sync popups if synced from the advanced 'sync now' button in review services

changed the default global 'stop-accidents' bandwidth rule of 120rqs per minute to 512MB per minute. this only affects new users, but users trying to sync to large file repos might like to make a similar change manually

doing giant full file delete (i.e. purge from trash) jobs should now be a bit gentler on the gui

improved how the client deletes paths, clarifying in the code when and when not to allow recycle (usually disabled for thumb disposal)

switched the hacky text widgets on the popup system to a newer object. seems to still render ok, so lets see if it fixes some unusual layout issues some users have seen

if the temp folder cannot be created on boot, the client will continue anyway

fixed some url-domain text handling in db storage that was also breaking v309 update for some users

fixed some additional domain generation error handling at the db level

the list of url classes in the system:url panel is now the list of all url classes that are considered associable (before, it was file and post urls)

if a url class now api-links to itself or otherwise forms a loop with n other api url classes, the client will now throw an error (rather than lock up in an infinite loop!)

in the parsing ui, tag parse test results are now cleaned before being displayed

fixed misc url matching error reporting bug

when consulting the current file limit, the gallery page downloader will now try, when it has that number, to consult the total number of urls found it the current search (old behaviour is to only consult the number of _new_ urls, which lead to some bad edge-case workflows)

misc refactoring

next week

I am going to take a light week next week so I can shitpost E3. I will try and keep up with messages, but I'll only do a little fixing work. I will get back to regular schedule on the 16th, which means v311 will be on the 20th. I will make a 'No Release Tomorrow!' post on the 12th.

I am a little ill and completely exhausted, so an easy week is coming at a great time.

I am still really enjoying making hydrus. Thank you for all your continued support!

[dweemeister]

“Women Make Film” marathon reviews (2/?)

Sleepwalking Land (2007, Mozambique)

From 1977 to 1992, Mozambique was in a state of civil war. Mozambique, situated in Africa’s southeast corner above South Africa and separated by a channel from Madagascar, still reckons with the human, political, and social legacies of that conflict. Exacerbated by the Soviet Union and the anti-communist Apartheid South Africa (both meddling for influence in Mozambican affairs), the war quickly reached a conclusion as those foreign regimes disintegrated. In the final year of the Mozambican Civil War, author Mia Couto published an acclaimed magical realism novel, Terra Sonâmbula (Sleepwalking Land), that takes place with the war as a backdrop. Couto’s book inspired a film adaptation by Teresa Prata – Portuguese-born, Mozambican-raised, and now living in Germany.

Sleepwalking Land is Prata’s first feature film as a director. She was mesmerized by Couto’s book, saying that memories of the war rushed through her head while reading. Believing the text to be deeply cinematic, she spent seven years to complete this adaptation of Sleepwalking Land. The final print is a film difficult to categorize. Comprised of two parallel narratives, Prata has the narratives blend into the other as the film progresses. Its magical realism elements only appear in the final half-hour of the film. One scene in particular will most likely shock, if not offend, Western viewers. But the actions in that scene are considered a traditional behavior in Mozambique (something that I shall explain later in this write-up). Central to Sleepwalking Land is the idea that storytelling is integral to survival – especially as the innocent trod through their war-torn homeland.

In the Mozambican countryside, we encounter eleven-year-old Muidinga (Nick Lauro Teresa) and a much older man named Tuahir (Aladino Jasse). Their relationship is unclear, but Muidinga refers to Tuahir as “Uncle” (if the film’s dialogue is to be believed, they are probably not related). Muidinga wishes to find his mother, but the search has been fruitless. The young refugee also appears not to remember much about his life before his journeys with Tuahir; he cannot even recall how he and Tuahir met. The elderly Tuahir is a storyteller who makes clear his desire to leave the past behind – the audience learns almost nothing about that past by film’s end. This duo has been wandering the countryside, but one day stumble upon the wreckage of a torched bus. They bury the charred bodies of those who died in their seats, salvage a diary from one of the victims, and take shelter in the bus (“What is already burnt cannot burn again.”) Muidinga reads from the diary (Tuahir is illiterate), and learns that the writer is a woman searching for her missing son. He believes, however unlikely, he is that very son and that the writer is his mother.

If the viewer expects details about the Mozambican Civil War itself, just note that those details never appear. Prata elects to keep the affiliations of the roving militias as ambiguous as possible. Like Couto’s text, this film adaptation of Sleepwalking Land has not taken any sides or political stances – save the notion that war is solely a destructive force. But it is not war itself that Sleepwalking Land focuses on, but how its central characters respond to the traumas it has unleashed on their lives. Muidinga and Tuahir enter the film with unrevealed, if not unknowable, pasts. “You don’t even have a story,” Tuahir tells the young boy.

Muidinga responds by creating his own life story, however fantastical. He is reborn; the particulars of the civil war, the loss of his parents, and the famine that affected Mozambique prior to this rebirth is fully removed from his lived experiences. Muidinga’s imagination leads the film into its magical realism. Having never seen the ocean and despite being nowhere near the beach, Muidinga transports himself and Tuahir there – without ever leaving the bus. Muidinga has broken the inescapable cycle that has trapped him and Tuahir. Upon this development, Tuahir realizes that the young boy he has been accompanying has learned all that he needs to survive in desperate, nightmarish times. In each of these scenes, Paulo Rebelo’s (2000’s O Fantasma) editing does well to transition between the scenes depicting the diary entries the roundabout travels of Muidinga and Tuahir, lending a documentary-like feel to the latter.

Plot-hungry viewers will probably demand for explanations for Muidinga’s amnesia and Tuahir’s past, but the film refuses to provide any answers. To those viewers: stop resisting the film’s refusal to accommodate your expectations, and allow it to tell its story on its own terms.

And as for expectations, one shocking scene in Sleepwalking Land will undoubtedly startle Western audiences and requires explanation for anybody reading this review after viewing the film. The behavior in that scene is custom in Mozambique. In Mozambique, young boys and girls are “initiated” by elder men and women, respectively, as they reach puberty. In a secluded environment, the elders will teach the young ones about sexuality. Sexual initiation of Mozambican children was banned by the left-wing FRELIMO party after securing independence from Portugal and establishing one-party control. FRELIMO argued that initiation rites promoted female subservience; their many critics dismissed this as simplistic, saying that the rites provided women with sexual education they might not otherwise get.

The ban on initiation rites has long been lifted in Mozambique, though the practice is no longer as prominent as it used to be. In keeping with the film’s fidelity to Mozambican culture at this time, Prata includes Muidinga’s initiation in this film. The scene is filmed obliquely, in a matter-of-fact way. The audience never sees anything graphic and Tuahir’s verbal descriptions are innocuous, but the implication of what he is doing to Muidinga is clear. Prata, a child of both Africa and Europe, could not have filmed this scenario with any greater respect to her actors and the cultures she was raised in. For Western viewers like myself, it is one of more than a few teaching moments in Sleepwalking Land.

The film’s two leads in Nick Lauro Teresa and Aladino Jasse are both non-professional actors. Their acting might not be the most accomplished, but the dynamic between the two is a joy to watch. Though they probably are not related, their characters have an asymmetric emotional intimacy understandable considering their situation. In what might have been a dour, overlong experience, Teresa and Jasse inject enough charm and humor to keep Sleepwalking Land bearable. The same cannot be written for the parallel story fronted by Kindzu (Helio Fumo) and Farida (Ilda Gonzalez), which throws the film’s narrative propulsion off-balance whenever Teresa and Jasse are not on-screen. To everyone’s credit, the acting ensemble helps Sleepwalking Land feel like a vivid dream – from the silences paired with the rural landscapes, the decisional logic, and the film’s impossible conclusion (but it is one that, mind you, works).

Though Sleepwalking Land has made appearances in film festival across the world, it – and Teresa Prata’s career (this is Prata’s most recent movie, and by what is provided in Sleepwalking Land, I would like to see much more from her) – has never found much traction. I may not have read Couto’s novel prior to viewing this film (the novel is available in an English translation), but its novelistic overtures are felt throughout the film. The blending of narratives flows like something from a printed page, rather than quickly edited into yet another one of Christopher Nolan’s moviemaking mazes. From its humble, low-budget origins, Sleepwalking Land is composed in its singular artistic vision and confident about the depth of human endurance.

My rating: 8/10

^ Based on my personal imdb rating. Half-points are always rounded down. My interpretation of that ratings system can be found in the “Ratings system” page on my blog (as of July 1, 2020, tumblr is not permitting certain posts with links to appear on tag pages, so I cannot provide the URL).

For more of my reviews tagged “My Movie Odyssey”, check out the tag of the same name on my blog.

NOTE #1: This is the second of an unspecified amount of film reviews on this blog relating to films that I saw as part of Turner Classic Movies’ (TCM) Women Make Film marathon.

NOTE #2: Sleepwalking Land is currently available to watch on YouTube for free. The print includes English subtitles in the closed-captioning options.

[aquaticsasquatch]

Tagged by @drakespopularityisbaffling, is that you, John Wayne? Is this me?

Nicknames: Sas, Kramer

Gender: Male

Sign: Aries

Height: about 6′2″

Time: 9:09 AM

Birthday: April 10th

Fav bands: Kind of difficult to specify just a few, let alone in any specific order, but I like OFF!, Fear, and a shitload of other punk bands, some stuff like Talking Heads, Earth Wind & Fire, and The Doors, and a bit of prog rock like King Crimson and Yes

Fav solo artists: Warren Zevon is the GOAT, and I also like Busdriver, Johnny Cash, Marty Robbins, & Dick Dale

Song stuck in my head: "Moon In June” - Soft Machine

Last movie I saw: I forget what the most recent movie I watched for the first time was, but the 2006 The Hills Have Eyes was on last night so I caught the first bit of it while I went to sleep. I can never take the remake as seriously as the original because the guy who plays the dad is the same guy who plays the police captain on Monk, and I cannot attribute any other character to that man no matter what I see him in. I keep expecting fucking Tony Shalhoub to come poking his head out of the trailer or something

Last show I watched: Most recent one I finished? Probably BNHA, or maybe Gundam: IBO Season 1

When did I create my blog: I don’t even fucking remember any more.

What do I post: pretty much reblogs only and the occasional shitpost with delusions of grandeur that only ends up getting 1 note

Do I have other blogs: A porn reblogs blog,(NSFW) though I don’t actually reblog stuff to it too often

Do I get asks: Not too often, usually just informative stuff from mutuals

Why did I choose my URL: I’ve almost always had my username be Sasquatch on any forum or social media, but as that is almost always taken, I needed a unique adjective to slap on. I live near the ocean and like marine biology, so I chose Aquatic for tumblr.

Following: 265

Followed by: 532 and I promise you more than half are bots

Average hours of sleep: I work night shifts and so I have to sleep in the daytime 5 days a week, usually somewhere between 3-6 hours. Then on the weekend, I sleep like, 13 fucking hours a night.

Lucky number: 14

Instruments: .

What am I wearing: grey t-shirt and dark turquoise boxers

Dream job: I’d love to be a game dev, except I have no fucking skills. Maybe a marine biologist or something would also be nice, but that would also require college education. Fuck you it’s Retail Hell forever.

Dream Trip: I’ve always really, really wanted to visit Bhutan. But it’s expensive as all SHIT because their government also charges any tourists like $200 a day spent in the country, not to mention the travel expenses flying to India and India -> The Fucking Himalayas, and the need for a translator probably because like hell would I be able to learn any fucking Dzongkha before the trip.

Fav food: Cheeseburgers, top 3 are probably from In-N-Out (Animal Fries are also god-tier), Chili’s, and Norm’s (a diner chain)

Nationality: New California Republic

Fav song: Can’t pick one, and it always changes. I think at this precise moment I’ll go with Tarkus.

Last book I read: I read a little bit of Keith Morris’s autobiography recently, My Damage.

Top 3 fictional universes I want to join: JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure would be bitchin’ if I became a stand user. Otherwise, I want to visit the Zone of the STALKER series, or wander the wastes of Fallout’s world.

I have to tag people now, so I’ll go with @captainkupo, @biff-donderglutes, and @officialjoebiden. But I mean, if you’re a mutual and you wanna do this and don’t wanna wait for someone else to tag you, feel free to just do it and @ me.