The Man from Earth

The Man from Earth is a 2007 American drama science fiction film written by Jerome Bixby and directed by Richard Schenkman. It stars David Lee Smith as John Oldman, the protagonist. The screenplay was conceived by Jerome Bixby in the early 1960s and completed on his deathbed in April 1998. The film gained recognition in part for being widely distributed through Internet peertopeer networks, which raised its profile. The film was later adapted by Schenkman into a stage play of the same name.

The film begins with Professor John Oldman David Lee Smith packing his belongings onto his truck, preparing to move to a new home. His colleagues show up to give him an impromptu farewell party Harry John Billingsley, a biologist Edith Ellen Crawford, an art history professor and devout Christian Dan Tony Todd, an anthropologist Sandy Annika Peterson, a historian who is in love with John Dr. Will Gruber Richard Riehle, a psychiatrist Art William Katt, an archaeologist and his student Linda Alexis Thorpe.As Johns colleagues press him to explain the reason for his departure, he slowly, and somewhat reluctantly, reveals that he is a prehistoric caveman who has lived for more thanmillennia, and that he relocates every ten years to keep others from realizing that he does not age. He begins his tale under the guise of a possible sciencefiction story, but eventually stops speaking in hypotheticals and begins answering questions from a firstperson perspective. His colleagues refuse to believe his story. John continues his tale, relating how he was a Sumerian for 2000 years, then a Babylonian under Hammurabi, then a disciple of Gautama Buddha. He claims to have known other historical figures, including Christopher Columbus and Van Gogh one of whose original paintings he apparently owns, a gift from the artist himself. ........

Source: Wikipedia