Ajyal Film Festival 2024

All Films

To the Ends of the Earth (Tabi no Owari Sekai no Hajimari)

Special Screening

Kiyoshi Kurosawa / Feature Narrative / Japan, Uzbekistan, Qatar / 2019 / 120 min / Colour / DCP
In Japanese, Uzbek
Interests: Drama
MENA Premiere

Synopsis

A young Japanese reporter named Yoko finds her cautious nature tested when she travels to Uzbekistan to shoot the latest episode of a travel variety show. Failing to capture a mythical fish on camera—the TV crew have a string of segments go awry due to cultural misunderstandings and lost-in-translation encounters between them and the native Uzbeks. An upbeat and outgoing pro on camera, Yoko in her private life is a more obscure and introverted character. As the assignment unfolds, she starts to question her chosen career, and embarks on her own journey of self-discovery through the meandering streets of Tashkent.

Breathtakingly capturing the natural beauty of Uzbekistan, and deftly dealing with the many culture-clashes that occur along the way—‘To the Ends of the Earth’ is an intimate portrait of someone cast into a foreign land and struggling to find their bearings. Indeed, after Yoko’s timid nature inadvertently gets her in trouble and arrested, a police chief sums up the complexity of the story wonderfully by simply remarking “We can’t know each other unless we talk”.

About the Directors

Kiyoshi Kurosawa made his feature film directorial debut in 1983 with ‘Kandagawa Wars’. He attracted global attention with ‘Cure’ (1997), following it with notable works ’License to Live’ (1998), ‘Barren Illusion’ (1999), and ‘Charisma’ (1999). In 2001, ‘Pulse’ won the FIPRESCI Prize and in 2008, ‘Tokyo Sonata’ was the Cannes Un Certain Regard Jury Prize winner. His recent works include ‘Seventh Code’ (2013), which won Best Director at the Rome Film Festival, and ‘Journey to the Shore’, winner of Best Director in Cannes Un Certain Regard (2015).

Credits

Director
Kiyoshi Kurosawa
Screenwriter
Kiyoshi Kurosawa
Producer
Eiko Mizuno-Gray, Jason Gray, Toshikazu Nishigaya
Editor
Koichi Takahashi
Production Designer
Norifumi Ataka
Executive Producer
Toshiaki Sakamoto, Eiko Mizuno-Gray, Kazuhiro Ohta, Nobuo Miyazaki, Tatsuya Yoshino, Hiroshi Yamamoto, Furkat Zokirov
Music
Yusuke Hayashi
Cinematographer
Akiko Ashizawa
Sales Company
Free Stone Productions
Production Company
Loaded Films Ltd., Tokyo Theatres Inc.
Sound
Shinji Watanabe
Assistant Director
Atsushi Unno
Distributor
Loaded Films Ltd.
Cast
Atsuko Maeda Ryo Kase Shota Sometani Adiz Radjabov Tokio Emoto

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