Synopsis

The United States has operated military bases in Japan for six decades, since the end of the Second World War.Their presence has rubbed salt into unhealed wounds from the war, a complex trauma explored in ANPO. The title refers to the acronym for the US-Japan Mutual Security Treaty, negotiated in 1951. But ANPO is not a straightforward political documentary. It is a stream of consciousness, contemplating the Japanese healing process. One artist paints the story of a woman who was shot and killed while scavenging shell casings on the fringes of a US base. Another young artist’s illustrations explore the idea of kimin, which she defines as “a country abandoning its people.” Yet another artist uses her work to come to terms with the role of “comfort women,” who were used as “a sexual breakwater to protect Japanese women” from being raped by Allied soldiers. Pain has many outlets; seeing it crafted into moving and visceral art can be devastating. Charting creative impulses born of hardship, ANPO is a poetic rumination on how artists respond to a nation’s trauma.

Wybrane festiwale i nagrody/Selected festivals and awards: 2010 - MFFToronto/Toronto IFF