NARAtive 2018
THE NIKAIDOS’ FALL
WORLD PREMIERE・舞台挨拶
CINEMA INFO
STORY
After the death of Tatsuya’s only son, the family loses the only male heir to their family name. The tragedy also causes Tatsuya’s wife to leave him. As a result, the family’s sickly mother pressures Tatsuya to remarry, albeit with a woman he is not sure he truly cares for. Tatsuya’s daughter, Yuko, also feels obligated to keep the family going and considers marrying a man as a Mukoyoshi, which means he will adopt Yuko’s family name, yet she is reluctant to do this because of her feelings for someone else. Both Tatsuya and Yuko are caught in a dilemma that forces them to choose between family obligation and their own desires.
CAST
Cast: Masaya Kato, Shizuka Ishibashi, Keita Machida, Hana Hizuki, Kayo Ise, Yohji Tanaka, Kazuko Shirakawa, Nelson Babin-Coy
STAFF
Scriptwriter: Arsalan Amiri, Ida Panahandeh / Cinematographer: Morteza Gheidi / Music: Masamichi Shigeno / Executive producer: Naomi Kawase
DIRECTOR : Ida Panahandeh
Japan・Hong-Kong / 2018 / 106min / Color / DCP / ENG/JPNSub.
Production: LDH JAPAN, Emperor Film Production Company Limited, Nara International Film Festival Organizing Committe
Japanese Distribution: HIGH BROW CINEMA
Asian Distribution (except Japan): Emperor Motion Pictures
© 2018 “二階堂家物語” LDH JAPAN, Emperor Film Production Company Limited, Nara International Film Festival
DIRECTOR
Ida Panahandeh
Ida Panahandeh was born in Tehran, Iran. She obtained a degree in Film Photography in 2002 and a master’s in Film Direction in 2005, both from the Arts University of Tehran, where she began her film career with several short films. After university she was invited to direct films for Iranian television, with which she won awards at numerous national festivals. In 2009 she took part in the Berlin ‘Talent Campus’. ‘Nahid’ is her first feature and it was screened in the Un Certain Regard section at the 2015 Cannes Film Festival where it won a special prize (Prix de l’Avenir). It also won the Golden Shika Award at the 2016 Nara International Film Festival. Israfil (2017) is the second feature of Ida Panahandeh.
COMMENT
Four years after Abbas Kiarosrami directed his last film in Japan in 2012, I found myself directing a feature narrative in the same country. As a young female Iranian director, it was a challenging task, especially after Kiarosrami’s well received film, since it was a risk taking project that possibly put my career in jeopardy. But as a filmmaker who has been fascinated by the cinematic style of Yasujiru Ozu and other Japanese film masters, I decided to face this challenge to make a film in a country I’ve always loved with its ancient culture, history and art. After travelling a few times to Japan and exploring a new story, a familiar plot came out unconsciously; the struggle between personal freedom and social obligations which is especially common in the societies where ancient traditions deeply reside. This was also the main concept of my first and second features. Now I feel content with the result of the risks I’ve taken and have opened a new window to my artistic world.
