A Dream of America

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The American Dream… who hasn’t had it… who hasn’t reached for it…

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As WWII dawns with America and the world bracing for the bloodiest conflict ever known, Fate arranges a chance meeting in Chicago between two young Finnish immigrants — an encounter that turns into a love of epic proportions as they struggle to make a better life for themselves in the Land of Opportunity.

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He, Toivo, is a great artist, a painter many years ahead of his time — an old soul in a young man’s body; she, Kerttu, is a smart and courageous young woman with dreams of dancing on Broadway.

Now deeply in love, they have the American Dream within their grasp, when suddenly circumstances beyond their control thrust them into a war that changed the course of history — the Finnish-Russian Winter War of 1939-40.

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Ever the pacifist, Toivo is forced to fight for the land he had scorned while confronting deep-seated, unresolved and conflicting emotions, while Kerttu is left behind to somehow endure the loneliness of New York while dancing in a burlesque house on Lower Broadway.

Until Fate once again intervenes.

 

 

Diddleville, USA

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The only child of a broken marriage, our hero has for many years tried to contact his father who had abandoned his mother when he was born. Frustrated, our hero takes up — and becomes very good at — martial arts.

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When his mother dies of cancer, our hero leaves for Japan to compete in a major martial arts championship — hoping to win the championship belt and, with it, his father’s respect and acceptance.

Our hero wins the tournament — but learns too late that the victory brings a servitude to a young woman who heads a crime syndicate and has personal plans for the winner. 

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Our hero escapes with the championship belt and is on his way to look up his father when he gets stranded in Diddleville, a small, end-of-the-road California desert town founded a hundred years ago by a swindler (“Diddler”) and now ruled by Jebediah, a corrupt and evil Chief of Police. 

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When a mysterious young woman claiming to be a reporter for a major martial arts magazine arrives and tells the Chief about our hero’s celebrity status in martial arts, the Chief sees an opportunity to make money.

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The Chief gives our hero an ultimatum — fight in a staged tournament in Diddleville or go to prison on false, trumped-up charges. 

When an escape from Diddleville is made possible by a friendly local, our hero faces the dilemma of saving himself or helping rid the town of the Chief. He decides to help the town and stays.

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But the young woman heading the crime syndicate arrives with martial artists from everywhere — all seeking to kill our hero and become her Champion. 

The tournament is a fight-to-the-death with many twists and turns — ending with our hero winning our respect as well as that of the town.

But with a price now on his head courtesy of the crime syndicate’s boss, our hero must move on, and his real adventure begins — for nothing hath the fury like that of a woman scorned.

 

The Red Cloth

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Norway, 996 AD. When Thorall, the young master of the ship The Falcon returns from the Mediterranean with his Muslim Arab friend and navigator Meshaal, they find that the priest Thangbrand has convinced King Olaf Tryggvason to embrace Christianity and give his people the choice of Christianity or losing their heads. Highly popular, each having the heart of a lion and the soul of a poet, Thorall and Meshaal receive a warm welcome from all but Olaf and the Jewish merchant, Reas, whose daughter Lea is in love with Thorall.

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In exchange for Olaf’s promise to keep Lea safe until his return, Thorall agrees to take Thangbrand and bolts of red cloth representing the body and blood of Christ to Greenland, where Leif Erikson awaits to leave for lands rumored to exist out west. Not wanting to be apart from Thorall, Lea hides aboard The Falcon and is not discovered until the ship is well out into the North Atlantic – making it too late to bring her back to Norway.

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Adventures and hardships during the journey bring The Falcon to Greenland too late – Erikson has already left.

Having given King Olaf his word that he would bring Thangbrand to Leif, Thorall leaves Greenland to find Leif out west.

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A storm forces The Falcon aground in L’Anse aux Meadows, Newfoundland – where the Nordic men and women are not welcomed by the natives, the Beothuk, and where Lea gives birth to the first European child in North America.

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Their remains were found in 1961 by Anthropologist Helge Ingstad.

 

He Returns

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When his beloved daughter commits suicide with his revolver, a former law enforcement official returns after 40 years to the place of his birth that he had left to save his daughter's life when it was threatened by local criminals.

 

Six Days in America

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Having been told that he is dying of pancreatic cancer, a young European man arrives in the US to experience America — and ends up seeing the real thing while on the road with a black gospel choir from Harlem, New York.

 

 

Fate, Two Kids And An E.T.

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A youthful impetuous alien accidentally enters a black hole, landing in a Florida Everglades wildlife rescue run by a widower and his two young children — and setting off alarms at the Department of Defense.

 

 

Last Chance - Lonely Hearts Square

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A world onto itself, Last Chance is an old-fashioned dance restaurant in Northern Europe frequented by people from all walks of life seeking the bliss and thrill of a carefree Now — which they will squeeze for all they can. No one is who they may seem to be — and patrons and staff can be who they are or anything they want to be. In short: Last Chance is everyone’s Heaven on Earth.

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