Dragons: Real Myths and Unreal Creatures

Dragons may be objects of fantasy, but why do cultures throughout the world — in very different times and places — share common tales of these larger-than-life creatures? Dragons: Real Myths and Unreal Creatures traces the legend of dragons through time, and across cultures and continents, exploring their connections to history, geography, paleontology, literature, art, national identity, and more. In the film, dragon legends unfold through a conversation between Skye Ingram (Laurence Leboeuf), a young woman troubled by recurring nightmares of dragons, and the peculiar Dr. Alistair Conis (Max von Sydow), a dream therapist of sorts and an expert on dragons. Dragons explores humankind’s fascination with these fantastic creatures over thousands of years. Dragons appear in some of the worlds’ earliest known writings in ancient Babylon and Greece. They appear on notable architecture, imperial crests, battle armor and national flags throughout the world. In Chinese and other Asian cultures dragons are revered as noble and heroic. In Medieval England, there are stories of massive, winged dragons terrorizing villages and castles, eventually to be slain by heroes.