Director: Kaneto Shindo
Script: Kaneto Shindo
Cinematographer: Kiyomi Kuroda
Editor: Toshio Enoki
Sound: Kunie Maruyama
Music: Hikaru Hayashi
Cast: Nobuko Otawa, Taiji Tonoyama, Shinji Tanaka, M. Horimoto
Production: Kindal Eiga Kyokai
Distribution:
Splendor Films
8 rue Molière
93100 Montreuil
France
Tel: 0033 1.42.87.92.67
Mail: [email protected]
Year: 1960
35 mm, B & W, 93 min,
OV Japanese with French Subtitles
Rewarded in Moscow Film Festival 1960
On an almost desert island of the Setonaikai archipelago, in the southwestern part of Japan, a whole family relentlessly grows grass and vegetables. The hardship of their work is mainly due to the lack of water which needs to be fetched from a nearby island, and to endless efforts to irrigate the land. The elder of the two children goes to school. Their life is simple, with the same daily gestures for carrying water and working the land. With almost no dialogues, this black and white film, whose exceptional visual beauty makes daily life flow at the pace of Hikaru Hayashi’s musical theme, is bound to enthral the audience. “I wanted to make a visually very creative film, to tell a story though images; a story where every view would express a feeling of happi ness or sadness in a natural setting.” Kaneto Shindo Man facing a hostile nature which needs to be overcome!
