The Rebirth

An oppressive and taut minimal film with basically only two characters: a man and a woman. The film maker himself plays the role of the man. That was not his first choice, but when it came to shooting, he put himself on the spot. The austerity of the film is emphasised by the absence of music and the sparse dialogues. The austerity also shapes the coercive power of the film that, controversially or not, won the main award at the last Locarno festival.
The man is Junichi and he is the father of a girl who is murdered by a classmate. He was already a widower and he is unable to fill the void left by his murdered daughter. He changes his life drastically, leaves his job at a newspaper and flees into heavy and monotonous work in a factory in the countryside on the northern island of Hokkaido. The woman in the film is Noriko (Makiko Watanabe) and she is the mother of the murderous classmate. She is consumed by feelings of guilt.
It may be cruel chance that brings them together in the canteen of his lodging house. The woman has also left for Hokkaido and is now working in the canteen as a cleaner. Communication between the two people struck down seems impossible, but in the end the film is not entitled ‘the rebirth’ for nothing. (GjZ)

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