Yakushima's Illusion: EAFFI Discoveries

Corry (Vicky Krieps), a French expert in pediatric heart transplant, is sent to a transplant centre in Kobe, Japan – an assignment weighted with cultural complexity. Organ donation remains a deeply taboo and sensitive subject in Japan, rooted in beliefs about the soul's continued presence in the body after clinical death. While visiting Yakushima's ancient forest, she meets Jin (Kanichiro), a free-spirited photographer, and the two fall for each other. One day Jin vanishes – is he dead, or one of Japan's so-called Johatsu, people who disappear overnight to escape their former lives? Naomi Kawase's new film (VISION, EAFFI 2020) is a luminous meditation on loss, connection, and the ephemeral nature of being. 

(Marie-Pierre Richard for EAFFI Discoveries) 

Festival selection/awards: Official Selection, Locarno International Film Festival 2025 

“Genuinely moving, in large part because (of) Krieps’ performance.” Variety