Tribute: Naomi Kawase

The 2020 Summer Olympics in Tokyo were held a year late due to the global coronavirus crisis. Director Naomi Kawase continues the tradition of feature-length documentaries shot on the occasion of the Olympics, following the events on and off the sports venues for several months. She sticks to her sensitive and intimate way of storytelling, revealing behind-the-scenes shots from the lives of individual athletes and their families. The footage of fascinating sporting performances is thus interspersed with the testimonies of the competitors, highlighting the fine line between the personal and the political, sport and societal issues. “Rather than the promotional piece for the Olympics you might expect, Side A’s preoccupation with the fleetingness of time raises several questions about the Olympics. How much is the momentary beauty worth when the event costs billions?”Source: Seventh Row

The first part (Side A) of the official film to mark the 2020 Summer Olympics held in Tokyo with a one-year delay caused by the coronavirus pandemic focused on the personal lives of the competitors and offered a social critique of the sporting environment. The second part (Side B) reveals the political background of the Games and documents the public protests that accompanied this edition. Archival footage, organizers' meetings, as well as personal accounts of stadium workers illustrate the daunting task of organizing such a gigantic event despite the adverse global situation. Kawase thus shows the flip side of the Olympics, which is usually hidden from the public eye. “How did they overcome the challenge of conducting the sports festival that was postponed by a year, without spectators? I wanted to convey to generations living 100 years from now how we overcame this rare challenge, and I wanted to do it through the gaze of a child.” — Naomi Kawase Source: website of the International Olympic Committee

The shores of a picturesque Japanese island are bathed by powerful waves that one night wash up the naked body of a dead man. It is discovered in the morning by a boy whose life is more connected to the corpse than it first appears. This gruesome discovery prompts the teenage protagonists – the boy and his girlfriend – to search for the meaning of the cycle of life and death. They visit the girl's dying mother, who wields magic and can speak to the gods, to learn more about human mortality. In this poetic, contemplative film, the still sea and mysterious water serve as motifs linking human woes to eternity and the afterlife. “To become one with that wave because it’s the last moment, it has an incredibly powerful energy. Then when you receive that force with your entire body, for a moment it turns into nothingness. Nothingness, or stillness.”