A few days ago I saw The Vast of Night again. It is something of a cult movie released back in 2019. I classify it as cult mainly because of the effect it had on me —with its funny indie mixture of nostalgia and outlandish noir— although its being a low budget production could be debatable (there are a few masterly-shot scenes with plenty of extras).

The movie's main topic —although brought about in a rather underhand way, at least till the end— is that of UFOs and alien life, abductions, etc., portrayed over the background of open communal life at a small town in the Fifties, along with strange sounds and the voices of former GI whistleblowers pouring into a night broadcast program, giving hints of a broad and decades-long Government conspiracy. The detective-like protagonists of the story —the resourceful host of the radio program and a teenage girl who accidentally sticks with him— will set out to unravel the mystery, crisscrossing through the deserted streets while everybody in town is attending the attraction of the year: the final match of a basket championship.

After first watching the movie I came across a few notes claiming it was based on real events, but now, giving the whole thing a second look, it comes out that it was very freely based on several tales of abduction, a folklore most of us are very familiar with. However, I still think The Vast of Night is a fine piece of fiction.

Coming to the end, a miscellaneous note: I suddenly remembered watching this documentary film about abductions in the US. After a thorough research of several cases, the author (kind of a celebrity I think, but I forgot his name) claimed to have glimpsed a pattern —the abductees, he said, had a tendency to be American citizens of German origin. How about that?