movies: Evil Does Not Exist
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title | country | year | length | director | url | blurb | virtual_screening | programmer_blurb | trailer_url | language |
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Evil Does Not Exist | Japan | 2023 | 105 | Ryûsuke Hamaguchi | https://www.siff.net/festival/evil-does-not-exist | After finally breaking through in the U.S. with the Oscar®-winning Drive My Car, filmmaker Ryûsuke Hamaguchi turns his eye to Mizubiki, a remote lakeside village that’s about to be overtaken by a new “glamping” site built on sensitive natural land. | 0 | With parts originally conceived as a visual accompaniment to Eiko Ishibashi’s stunning original score, Ryûsuke Hamaguchi’s meditation on a mountain village’s duty to the natural world proves imminently capable of conveying a compelling story without words. Opening sequences enmesh us in daily rural life: friends collect fresh water for the evening’s soup from an icy alpine brook, a wandering young girl marvels at bare trees swaying against an icy blue sky, her forgetful father chops wood with well-honed precision outside a cozy cabin. Later, a talent agency from nearby Tokyo intrudes on the idyllic community to pitch a pandemic-funded project set to develop their woods into a glamping resort. The municipal proceedings, an exercise in firm but politely worded discourse that would do Frederick Wiseman proud, are compelling in the depth of care expressed by long-term residents weary of the environmental effects of intruding tourists. When the story shifts to the out-of-their-depth functionaries charged with implementing the ill-conceived project, the film grants them humanity as they ponder the implications of what they’ve been hired to do. A stirring film of quiet observation, its enrapturing spell weaves disparate threads together in an increasingly dreamlike third act’s confrontation of capitalism will spark conversations long after the credits roll.—Josh Bis | https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QMNILmECRbM | Japanese |