Dream of Illumination | JAPAN CUTS 2018

Dream of Illumination ひかりのたび (Hikari no Tabi) INTERNATIONAL PREMIERE FEATURE SLATE 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 black & white cinematography by Mizuki Nishida, and a trembling, moody score by Kenji Kariu. 2017. 91 min. DCP, in Japanese with English