''Ainu Mosir'' ( ain, アイヌモシㇼ, lit=the land of the Ainu;

Hokkaido is Japan's second largest island and comprises the largest and northernmost prefecture, making up its own region. The Tsugaru Strait separates Hokkaidō from Honshu; the two islands are connected by the undersea railway Seikan Tunnel. The la ...

) is a 2020 Japanese

drama film In film and television, drama is a category or genre of narrative fiction (or semi-fiction) intended to be more serious than humorous in tone. Drama of this kind is usually qualified with additional terms that specify its particular super-g ...

directed by

Takeshi Fukunaga Takeshi Fukunaga is a Japanese filmmaker based in New York. His first feature film, '' Out of My Hand'' (2015) premiered in the Panorama section at the 65th Berlin International Film Festival and won the US Fiction Award at the 2015 Los Angeles ...

. It features a story about a young

Ainu Ainu or Aynu may refer to: *Ainu people, an East Asian ethnic group of Japan and the Russian Far East *Ainu languages, a family of languages **Ainu language of Hokkaido **Kuril Ainu language, extinct language of the Kuril Islands **Sakhalin Ainu la ...

boy, and deals with issues around the conflict between his personal thoughts, modern Japan, and the way of his traditional Ainu heritage. The film featured as a premier at the

Tribeca Film Festival The Tribeca Festival is an annual film festival organized by TriBeCa Productions, Tribeca Productions. It takes place each spring in New York City, showcasing a diverse selection of film, episodic, talks, music, games, art, and immersive progra ...

Production

The movie was filmed on location in Hokkaido, Japan in 2020. The film runs for 84 minutes.

Plot

Kanto is a 14-year-old Ainu boy living in a small town in

. His mother runs an Ainu gift shop after his father’s death. Kanto is disgruntled with life in the town and wishes to move away from it to a big modern city, away from his Ainu heritage. The town itself is a traditional Ainu community, essentially carrying on the traditions and surviving through the tourism industry. After the death of his father, he is taken under the wing of an Ainu Elder, Debo (Debo Akibe), a friend of his father's, who shows him the ways of the Ainu. The Ainu residents are bringing back a lost tradition called Iomante, a controversial ritual killing of a bear, which some of them agree with and others see as a practice that should be changed. Around this time, Kanto discovers a bear in the forest. A Japanese journalist (

Lily Franky is a Japanese illustrator, writer and actor. He has appeared in more than 40 films since 2001. Career In 2016, Franky received the Cut Above Award for Outstanding Performance in Film at Japan Cuts JAPAN CUTS: Festival of New Japanese Film is a ...

) visits, interviewing the Ainu people about the current situation, including the Iomante ritual. Kanto keeps visiting the bear in the forest, befriends it, and then has to decide how he feels about the bear killing, ultimately coming to the conclusion that he does not agree with it. Kanto finds videotapes of the Iomante rituals and watches them. He begins to discover more about his culture, including some of the more mystical elements, and eventually comes to appreciate some of the rituals.

Cast

* Kanto - Kanto Shimokura * Debo - Debo Akibe * Emi - Emi Shimokura * Japanese journalist -

Awards and film festivals

''Ainu Mosir'' received a number of nominations, and won two awards: * Guanajuato International Film Festival 2020 - winner - best International Feature competition * Hainan International Film Festival 2020 - nominee - Future New Talent Award * Hong Kong Asian Film Festival 2020 - New Talent Award * Image Awards (NAACP) 2021 - nominee - Outstanding International Motion Picture * Nippon Connection Japanese Film Festival 2021 - nominee - Visions Jury award and Audience award * Taipei Film Festival 2020 - nominee - New Talent award * Tribeca Film Festival 2020 - Special Jury Mention

References

External links

* 2020 films 2020 drama films 2020s Japanese-language films Japanese drama films American drama films Chinese drama films Films set in Hokkaido Ainu in fiction 2020s American films {{Japan-film-stub