Kaze no denwa

The opening intertitles state that “the 2011 East Japan earthquake and tsunami disaster killed 15,897 people. 2,532 people remain missing. Haru, from Otsuchi in Iwate Prefecture, was 9. She lost her parents and brother to a tsunami. Now she lives with her aunt in Kure, Hiroshima Prefecture.” Following this text, it only takes Suwa a few minutes to make us understand just how profoundly Haru is filled with grief when the film begins, 7 years after the catastrophe. She suffers silently, uncompromisingly, almost stubbornly – and is full of accusations. The appalling void left behind by death stands between the two women. Though they sit the same table and eat the same food, they seem to belong to different solar systems. When her aunt suddenly falls ill, Haru decides to set out for the place where she suffered that initial loss. With all travel stories since the time of Gautama Buddha also doubling up as stories about journeys into ourselves (or the meaning of life), Haru learns that there is a time for mourning and a time for confidence along the way. And Suwa is such a masterful storyteller that one continues to contemplate what lessons cinema can still teach us – through sharing experiences with an open heart, through being compassionate. (Katja Wiederspahn)

Nobuhiro Suwa: SANTA COMES TO TOWN (1982), HANASARERU GANG (1984), 2/DYUO (1997), M/OTHER (1999), H STORY (2001), A LETTER FROM HIROSHIMA (2002, K), UN COUPLE PARFAIT (2005), PARIS, JE T’AIME (2006, Episode), YUKI & NINA (2009), BLACK HAIR (2011, K), LE LION EST MORT CE SOIR (2017)