Officially selected to have its world premiere at the 2014 Busan International Film Festival (BIFF) .
Story
A self documentary by a multiple award winning documentary filmmaker KANA Tomoko who enters the evacuation zone in the aftermath of Fukushima nuclear power plant meltdown accident. Alternatively she finds out about her pregnancy and begins filming herself becoming a first time mother in the age of nuclear nightmare.
As the meltdown at the nuclear power plant in Fukushima was unfolding, KANA finds out the coincidence that the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant first generated the power on her birthday 40 years ago. Feeling strange senses of fate and guilt, she decides to enter the radiation red zone despite the government’s warning, to film what was not on the mainstream media.
During shooting, she falls ill and alternatively discovers her first pregnancy at the age of 40. After many years spent on fertility treatments, she is torn between joy and devastation. Eventually she faces difficult choices that involve becoming a mother and protecting her unborn child from the ever-present threat of radiation. She decides to turn the camera on herself.
The camera captures her panic, anger, sorrow and hope. What we see through the lens is a filmmaker, a mother, and an individual forced to make difficult decisions in the uncontrollable nuclear meltdown nightmare.
A Lullaby Under the Nuclear Sky - 3 min teaser
from Horizon Features on Vimeo.
About the Director
KANA Tomoko
Born in 1971 in Tokyo, she became drawn to the world of documentaries during college when she was featured on a TV documentary program directed by KORE-EDA Hirokazu. Starting her career as a news director at NHK, she became an independent in 2000. Her first narrative screenplay "Two by the River" won the Sundance/NHK International Filmmakers Award. Her third film, "Beautiful Islands" (Executive producer KORE-EDA Hirokazu) won Asia Cinema Fund AND Award at BIFF 2009 followed by theatrical openings in the US, Japan and Korea. In 2011, she directed the documentary “Iwasaki Chihiro” (Executive producer YAMADA Yoji). Filmography and more.