The Invisible Island

Director: Keiko Courdy

France, Japan, 2021

85′

Synopsis

Fukushima, in search of the spirit of the zone. Waves crash eternally on the shore of Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant. Next to a white facility for radioactive waste burning, children play on the ground, black bags of contaminated soil pile up, while the grass grows wild in between. The film relates the stories of people who survived the tsunami and were forced to evacuate, and people who came from very far to work, decontamination workers of Fukushima Daiichi. The film is a story of resilience, failed technology, and the transformation of the territory. In Japan, the government wishes to forget and go forward, but the traces can not be erased that easily. Keïko Cordy has been filming every year since 2011, developing a relationship of trust with local people, revealing the hidden traumas, and the secret life of nuclear workers in this parallel world, an invisible island.

Director's bio

Keiko Courdy is a French filmmaker and media artist who has spent many years of her life in Japan. She is co-founder of PIKA PIKA FILMS in Paris. Profoundly moved by the disaster of March 2011, she left immediately for Japan, where she launched the production of the documentary film　« AU-DELA DU NUAGE °Yonaoshi 3.11 ». Her new feature documentary « THE INVISIBLE ISLAND, Fukushima in search of the spirit of the zone » follows local people and decontamination workers of Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant.  She holds a PH.D. from the University of Tokyo, Faculty of Arts and Science, Culture and Representation department, and has taught Media Performance as Associate Professor at the Kyoto University of Arts and Design for 3 years. She lives presently in the South of France.

Credits

Camera: Keïko Courdy, Quentin Tyberghien, Ophélie Giomataris, Jimmy Kobayashi, Ryô Nawa

Editor: Giuliano Papacchioli

Sound: Luc Martinez

Music: Ryuichi Sakamoto, Seigen Ono

Producer: Pika Pika Films