Yakushima's Illusion

L'illusion de Yakushima

Director: Naomi Kawase
Country: Japan, France, Belgium, Luxembourg

German Premiere
2025 | 122 min. | French, Japanese, English
Subtitles: English, German

Cast_ Vicky Krieps, Kanichirō, Ojiro Nakamura, Misaki Nakano, Haruto Tsuchiya Screenplay_ Naomi Kawase Camera_ Masaya Suzuki, Arata Dodo Producer_ David Gauquié, Julien Deris, Jean-Luc Ormières, Renan Artukmaç Rights_ Cinefrance International

Far from home, a young woman (Vicky Krieps) carries an emotional burden. A moving drama about dealing with grief and loss.

Corry (Krieps), a Frenchwoman who arranges heart transplants for children, is sent to Japan. As a European, she is expected to contribute her outside perspective in a country where traditional concepts still render organ donations taboo. But while she is fighting for the life of a little boy in her professional capacity, her partner Jin, a photographer from Yakushima, vanishes, becoming a “johatsu” like 80,000 others in Japan every year. Corry faces a twofold burden: saving the child and coping with the loss of a loved one.

Director

Director Naomi Kawase lives in Nara, where she was born. Her highly acclaimed works have repeatedly blurred the line between fiction and documentary. She received the Camera d’Or at Cannes for ›Suzaku‹ (1997) and the Grand Prix for ›The Mourning Forest‹ (2007). She also created the official film for the 2020 Olympics in Tokyo.

Trailer

Screenings