IFFR 2000

Josef von Sternberg

The great Von Sternberg fell in love with Japan and filmed a true story in a studio there. After a shipwreck a group of soldiers lands on an island where the end of the war passes them by.

the bridge in the rain

Ana-ta-han

Samuel Fuller

From an age when they still made real police films. Two detectives, one with a Japanese background, seek a killer in Little Tokyo, the Japanese district of Los Angeles. And then they both fall in love with the woman who painted the kimono.

The Crimson Kimono

Doris Dörrie

Two brothers try to conquer their mid-life crisis in a Japanese Zen monastery. They manage by trial and error. Comic and charming film made with a small production crew by Doris 'Bin ich schön' Dörrie.

Erleuchtung Garantiert

Daniel Schmid

Swiss film-maker reveals his fascination with Japanese Kabuki theatre in a fine mix of feature and documentary. With Tamasaburo Bando; the actor who plays women's roles in a way actresses never could.

Das Geschriebene Gesicht

Jim Jarmusch

A samurai in New York. Entertaining and exciting homage to the kings of the Japanese B-film. Maybe the nicest Jarmusch ever. The protagonist is the mysterious lonely hitman Ghost Dog (a beautiful role by Forest Whitaker); a great, heavy, black man who moves with an almost magical lightness.

Ghost Dog: The Way of the Samurai

Fritz Lang

The second (silent) film by the great master, in which Fritz Lang tells the Madame Butterfly story with tension and style. With live music.

Harakiri

Paul Schrader

Famous and stylish film version by Paul Schrader of the controversial and spectacular life and self-imposed death of the militant Japanese writer Mishima Yukio. Seldom seen on the big screen these days.

Mishima - A Life in Four Chapters

Robert Lepage

What does Japanese Nô theatre have to do with saying 'no' to the separation of French-speaking Quebec from Canada? An original film about an unlikely comparison jumps back and forth between Japan and Montreal in 1970.

Daniel Mann

Marlon Brando plays a Japanese guide in a Hollywood film shot entirely on Okinawa. Americans try to teach the islanders civilisation and democracy. Made with great cynicism about the American sense of superiority.

The Teahouse of the August Moon

Arnold Fanck

Riefenstahl's teacher serenades Japanese fire-spitting mountains and their aversion to democracy. That was not appreciated in Japan.

Die Tochter des Samurai

Mike Leigh

The successful ninetheenth-century operetta duo Gilbert and Sullivan are in danger of splitting up, but Japan brings salvation: The Mikado is a smash hit. Stylish costume drama in which Mike Leigh proves he can do more than make committed kitchen-sink realism.

Topsy-Turvy

Melodrama by the master Ophuls about the love of a Russian spy for a Japanese geisha. Sardonic and tragic. The ideal Japan created in a Paris studio.

IFFR 2025
30 Jan – 9 Feb 2025