Still the Water

On the island of Amami Oshima, during the traditional dances of the August full moon, sixteen-year-old Kaito finds a body in the sea. Who it was and how it died stays unclear for a long time. His girlfriend Kyoko tries with him to understand what the death means. At the same time Kyoko's mother is dying, and the whole island knows it. The film is not interested in the mystery but in death being an ordinary part of life on this island. The sea, the storm and the trees take up as much room as the characters. A goat is killed in the traditional way in an unbroken shot, and the film does this not to shock but to describe a place where dying is not hidden away. Naomi Kawase wrote and directed. It was shot in 2013 on Amami, in Kagoshima Prefecture. It played in competition at Cannes on 20 May 2014, Kawase's fourth film in the competition, and opened in Japan on 26 July 2014. It is a French, Japanese and Spanish co-production. Who it is for: anyone who likes slow cinema centred on a relationship with nature, and Kawase's work. Who it is not for: anyone expecting narrative tension. The body is never resolved, the pace is very heavy, and the animal killing is real.