Dream of Illumination

Feature Slate

North American Premiere

Intro and Q&A with director Thunder Sawada, star Yuya Takagawa and producer Kazuyuki Kitaki

After moving place to place due to her divorcé father Ueda’s (Yuya Takagawa) work as a real estate agent, high school senior Nana (Sara Shida) has spent the most time in the small town of Rokujo. Facilitating the purchase of low-value land by foreign buyers for development, Ueda is the scorn of the dwindling population of farmers stuck in debt and harboring provincial attitudes toward outsiders. As Nana considers her next step, her father reveals the secret trauma linking him to this land and its people. Writer/director Thunder Sawada’s critical examination of the precarity of rural life and inevitability of change boasts a warmly authentic cast, gorgeous b&w cinematography by Mizuki Nishida, and a trembling, moody score by Kenji Kariu.

2017. 91 min. DCP, in Japanese with English subtitles. Directed by Thunder Sawada. With Sara Shida, Yuya Takagawa, Maho Yamada, Akira Hamada.

Healthy Japanese light meals, snacks and festival-related refreshments available for purchase by  .