Yuko is a Japanese girl who was taken hostage in Iraq while volunteering there as an aid worker. Finally released and back in her hometown, Yuko finds herself ostracized as a national disgrace by society that sees her helping a country other than Japan, and the embarrassment of getting captured but not killed, as things of which to be brutally ashamed.
Acting
Fusako Urabe's wordless suffering says everything.
Direction
Kobayashi's static frames trap you in Yuko's isolation.
Writing
Dialogue so sparse every syllable wounds.
Director
Masahiro Kobayashi
Trivia, insights & behind the scenes
Released during ongoing Iraq War, film critiqued Japanese media's dehumanizing coverage of hostages as 'troublesome citizens.'
Kobayashi cast mostly non-actors from the actual region, blurring documentary and fiction—Yuko's ostracism mirrors their real hesitation to participate.
JP
