Furusato

a documentary by Thorsten Trimpop

Furusato 古里 reveals the unusual relationship between a landscape and its inhabitants. Over the course of a thousand years, the exuberant nature of Japan’s eastern coast has become interwoven in the lives of its people. Here, the earth is sacred—but now, it is tainted with the invisible danger of radiation. For those who have decided to stay, the rural scene surrounding the crippled Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant remains the place they call home – their furusato, the first landscape they experience as children and the last one they will see before they die. A monumental portrait of wounded nature and the unsung costs of progress, the film illuminates the struggle of daily existence amidst the greatest nuclear disaster of our time. Here, no one measures in half-lives. This is about eternity.