In the 1970s, the Hashimoto husband-and-wife team tried to teach a cactus the Japanese alphabet, using a lie detector to turn the plant’s reactions into sound and thereby give it a voice. The goal was to use plants as potential witnesses in murder investigations. Elise Florenty and Marcel Türkowsky were granted access to the archive and were the first to translate the experiments into English. Mr Hashimoto, a former Fuji director, contributed to the development of the Giant LED and Neon Panel technology.
Technology and cultural traditions combine throughout the film, such as in the fictional story set in Tokyo’s suburbs, an environment known for its animist traditions, ultra-technology and the 'politics of silence'. The film is an airy, dreamy exploration of the self and the other, of myth and history, truth and lies, in relation to the Hashimoto experiment.
Programme IFFR 2017
How do you prepare for a double suicide? Do you go to the same place to die together or do you decide to die at the same time, yet far away from one another? We see one of the lovers and hear him, almost tangibly, practicing his lines in a rugged landscape somewhere
55'
Spain
IFFR 2017
Animated documentary about encounters in virtual simulations of Auschwitz-Birkenau. The film follows the makers – from Poland, Germany and Israel – through their virtual camps. Each is different in style and every maker has different aims for creating such a parallel world.
48'
Germany
IFFR 2017
Boys and girls from the colourful West-African Fulani people are raised separately on the savannah. Their daily activities are regularly interrupted by rituals that lead to adulthood. Filmed up close, you can almost feel the pain and endurance that accompany the rituals and daily experiences.
59'
Belgium
IFFR 2017