The Navigator: A Medieval Odyssey

The Navigator A Medieval Odyssey is a 1988 feature film, an official AustralianNew Zealand coproduction, directed by Vincent Ward. It won numerous New Zealand and Australian awards, including the Australian Film Institute Award for Best Film, and several awards at European fantasy film festivals.

As the full moon is rising, the villagers break though into a smoothlined tunnel, and then, finding a ladder, climb up and into late twentieth century New Zealand. Up until this point, the film has been shown in black and white. Now the adventure continues in colour film. The villagers marvel at the various technologies, never questioning what year it might be, believing that such things are only natural in great cities. But Griffin is haunted by a dark vision as the villagers come closer to fulfilling their quest.The idea for the film originated when Ward attempted to cross a German autobahn and became stranded in the middle. This inspired Ward while trapped on the motorway to imagine what it would be like for a medieval person to find themselves in such a 20thcentury situation. He was also inspired by a report about two Papua New Guinean tribesmen who briefly visited an Australian city, and the childs myth of digging through the earth and coming out the other side. The original script was a broad comedy, rather brash and funny and full of warrior gnomes. ........

Source: Wikipedia