RADIANCE / Vers la lumière

Wednesday, April 25 – 10:15 pm – Truffaut Theatre

Directed by: Naomi Kawase
Written by: Naomi Kawase
Cinematography: Arata Dodo
Film Editing: Tina Baz le Gal
Original Score: Ibrahim Maalouf
Produced by: Masa Sawada (Comme des Cinémas), MK2 Films
Cast: Masatoshi Nagase (Masaya Nakamori), Ayame Misaki (Misako Ozaki), Tatsuya Fuji (Kitabayashi & Juzo)
International Sales: MK2 Films

Mr. Nakamori is an embittered middle-aged photographer who is slowly going blind. Misako is a young writer struggling to compose expressive audio descriptions of films for the visually impaired. They clash, move closer, fall in love. Naomi Kawase’s luminous new film offers reflections on loss and mortality, delicately sculpting every exquisite ray of sunlight, every sound, every emotional tremor between her two heart-rending protagonists, in this quiet, loving, unfettered celebration of the redemptive power of art and the cinema. The film was awarded the Ecumenical Jury Prize at last year’s Cannes Film Festival.

Naomi Kawase | Born in Nara, Japan, writer/director Naomi Kawase graduated from the College of Visual Arts in Osaka and went on to create some of the most artistically audacious and emotionally engaging films to emerge from contemporary Japanese cinema. Her documentaries, Embracing (1992) and Katatsumori (1994) received international recognition and awards at the 1995 Yamagata Documentary Film Festival. In 1997, she became the youngest winner of the Camera d’Or in Cannes, for her first feature, Suzaku, which was presented at the Directors’ Fortnight. Firefly (2000) won both the FIPRESCI and the CICAE Prizes in Locarno. That was followed a series of features that were all official competition selections at the Cannes Film Festival: Shara (2003), The Mourning Forest (Grand Prix 2007), Hanezu (2011) and Still the Water (COLCOA 2015). Her film Sweet Bean was selected as the opening film of the 2015 Un Certain Regard section. Among other honors, Kawase has received the Carrosse d’Or from the Directors’ Fortnight (2009). In 2010, she founded the International Nara Film Festival, dedicated to promoting the work of young directors.

In Association with: MK2 Films, Women In Film

Labels: World Cinema Produced by France, After 10