Sayonara

Japan is the victim of terrorist attacks on its nuclear power stations. Irradiated, the country is being gradually evacuated to neighbouring countries. Tania, who is suffering from a long illness and is of South African origin, is waiting for her evacuation order in a small house hidden away in the mountains. She is being watched over by Leona, her first generation android which her father gave her. Together, the two of them become the last witnesses of a Japan which is slowly fading away and is being emptied by order of priority, sometimes according to discriminatory criteria. But slowly, fright gives way to poetry and beauty.

“There are two especially contemporary elements in Sayonara. The first is the problem of nuclear power stations. This is something quite true to reality, which could happen in China as in France. The second concerns the android. The film paints a world where most families own an android. That too is realistic. Last year androids for the family were starting to be commercialised. The plot of the film where a human dies in the company of their robot, can happen in contemporary Japan.” Kôji Fukada