WEST NORTH WEST
Filmfest 2016
OT: SEI HOKU SEI
Japan 2015
Original version with English subtitles
(Original: Japanese)
European Premiere
Director: Takuro Nakamura
Section: International Independents
Iranian exchange student Naima comes to Japan and makes friends with cocktail bar waitress Kei, who has a tempestuous lesbian relationship with fashion model Ai.
“Nakamura’s script has a searching, ever-shifting sense of the various cultural prejudices and insecurities being confronted on both sides: Kei briefly scoffs at her houseguest’s five-prayers-a-day regimen (“What century is this?” she asks, to which Naima sharply replies, “Does it matter?”), but proves cautiously willing to try an authentic Iranian meal that Naima prepares for her, in one of the film’s sweetest and most naturalistic scenes. Tolerance and understanding, we realize, operate along many different lines...” –Justin Chang, Variey
Cast: Hanae Kan, Sahel Rosa, Yuka Yamauchi
Credits
Screenplay: Takuro Nakamura
Director of Photography: Yasutaka Sekine
Film Editor: Takuro Nakamura
Composer: Masayuki Nakazato
Production Designer: Takashi Asada
Costume Design: Mariya Hayami
Sound: Izumi Matsuno
Producer: Kaihei Shiota
Production Company: Hao&Han Films, studio402
Director: Takuro Nakamura
biography
Takura Nakamura graduated from Waseda University in Tokyo and won the Special Jury Award at PIA film festival for TAITO. WEST NORTH WEST is his second feature film.
