KUSHINA, what will you be

Feature Slate

International Premiere

Intro and Q&A with director Moët Hayami and star Tomona Hirota

A meditation on youth, separatist politics and the rejection of patriarchy, Moët Hayami’s remarkable debut feature tells the story of Onikuma (Miyuki Ono, Evil Dead Trap, Black Rain), who founds an independent community of women in the mountain woods. Her daughter Kagu (Tomona Hirota, YEAH) was 14 years-old and pregnant with child when they first escaped modern society. Now that daughter, Kushina (Ikumi Satake), is reaching the same age and wondering about the world beyond the mountain. When a well-meaning anthropologist (Yayoi Inamoto) and her male assistant (Suguru Onuma) enter this precarious utopia, Onikuma is prepared to take all necessary steps to protect it, even if it means threatening the future Kushina might imagine for herself.

2018. 68 min. Blu-ray, in Japanese with English subtitles. Directed by Moët Hayami. With Miyuki Ono, Tomona Hirota, Yayoi Inamoto, Ikumi Satake.

JAPAN CUTS Award, 2018 Osaka Asian Film Festival: Indie Forum