Vision

Naomi Kawase : 2018

Jeanne is a French essayist who has come to Japan in search of "vision", a herb that appears but once every 997 years and is said to strip away all spiritual anguish and weakness in human beings. Upon arriving in Nara, she meets the taciturn Tomo and his mentor Aki, a charismatic prophet and keeper of the forests who claims to be 1,000 years old. Not long after Tomo agrees to let Jeanne stay with him, Aki vanishes, yet a young man appears almost as if in her place. As the sacred moment of vision's return looms, past events are summoned, new connections are forged, and time itself seems to slip from its perceived order – yielding new possibilities for human existence. Naomi Kawase's feature had its international premiere at Toronto International Film Festival 2018, and its UK premiere at Glasgow Film Festival 2019.