ARTicle Films
Sanka: Nomads of the Mountains
By Ryohei Sasatani
Japan/ 76m/2021/English Sub
Screen writer: Ryohei SASATANI
DP: Shogo UENO
Composer: Masamichi SHIGENO
Production Campany: Rokuji Eiga Kiko
Cast
Raif SUGITA,
Kiyohiko SIBUKAWA.
Naru KOMUKAI
In 1965, Japan is abuzz with the excitement of economic growth. Norio, a junior high student from Tokyo, visits his father’s remote family home and encounters a nomadic people known as “Sanka,” who wander from mountain to mountain without possessions or recognition by the government. He feels strongly drawn to them and their lifestyle in concert with nature, but discovers it is gradually dying due to development in the name of progress.
The year is 1965. Norio, a 15-year-old resident of Tokyo who is being forced to study for entrance exams, is sent to his father’s family home in a mountain village for the summer holidays. There he meets a family of “Sanka,” a nomadic minority who wander from mountain to mountain without possessions or recognition by the government. Feeling strongly drawn to these people and their ways, he joins them as they go river fishing for char, eat snake, and live vibrantly in the midst of nature. However, he discovers that the Sanka must also live with discrimination and persecution, and that their mountain habitat is being destroyed in the name of development by his own father. As Norio struggles with his identity as the son of his new friends’ enemy, he takes a stand against this unjust reality.
Director’s message
1965, the year in which this story is set, was a time of upheaval in a Japan undergoing rapid economic growth. The wave of development even reached hitherto sleepy mountain villages, and that year saw a sharp decline in phenomena that are now considered fantastical but were once regarded as ordinary by mountain people, such as sightings of shape-shifting raccoon dogs and will-o’-the-wisps. What this tells us is that it was once perfectly natural for Japanese to respect and fear nature. Subsequently, through the prevalence of “anthropocentric” thinking that continues to this day, Japan underwent a drastic transformation. Of course, it was not the only country to experience such change. Especially because of the barrenness of our modern age, I made this film with the belief that the lifestyle actually practiced by the Sanka people within nature incorporates universal wisdom.
Director: Ryohei Sasatani
Born in 1986. Began making a documentary film while a student in 2007, which became his theatrically-released feature directorial debut. Works include “A Foxhole Named KAMIKAZE” (2017 / 3min), winner of Best Japanese Film at My Rode Reel 2017, and documentary “Horse Beings” (2019 / 88min), screened at the National Gallery of Art (USA) as part of the exhibition “The Life of Animals in Japanese Art.” Makes films exploring themes such as the elements running through the layers of Japanese history, and how human beings can exist within nature.
