Hanezu no tsuki

Pregnant Kayoko and her partner Tetsuya spend time working and dreaming. But when the man returns from a business trip, a secret comes to light that may dramatically change their life together. The Asuka region where the film unfolds is considered the birthplace of Japanese culture, and setting the plotline there symbolically affirms the theme of the immutability of human fate. Emotion is kept beneath the surface here, thus the stronger its impact. In the film, the director works in her characteristic bewitching idiom, which owes much to placing the work in a natural landscape. The camera takes in insects, the sun, and the countryside with the same precision as it captures the human characters, thereby creating the illusion of perfect symbiosis. “I think the suffering that people experience in modern society stems from a failure to recognize ourselves as part of nature. You could say that humans actually play supporting roles in my films,” comments the director, who was also cinematographer and editor on the movie. (Karlovy Vary International Film Festival)