In yesterday’s Shouts from the Back Row podcast about The Dark Knight Rises, we briefly discussed the career of Christian Bale and Gill brought up his experience watching Bale’s obscure early role in a bizarre 1987 fantasy adventure called Mio in the Land of the Faraway. This Swedish-Norwegian-Soviet co-production was partially filmed in the Ukraine and shooting had to be postponed at one point when the cast and crew were forced to evacuate the area following the Chernobyl disaster! Anyway, you can 12-year old Christian in this trailer as the hero’s sidekick, Jum-Jum. And no, your eyes are not deceiving you: the young hero does travel to the fantasy world by clinging onto the long white beard of a giant floating head.