Onoda - 10 000 Nights in the Jungle

Carmel International Competition

"Excellent performances and well-tailored cinematic choices."

Screendaily
  • Archive - Festival 37
  • Director: Arthur Harari
  • France, Japan, Germany, Belgium, Italy, Cambodia 2021
  • 165 minutes
  • Japanese
  • Subtitles in Hebrew, English

Japan, 1944. Trained for intelligence work, Hiroo Onoda, 22 years old, discovers a philosophy contrary to the official line: no suicide, stay alive whatever happens, the mission is more important than anything else. Sent to Lubang, a small island in the Philippines where the Americans are about to land, his role will be to wage a guerilla war until the return of the Japanese troops. The Empire will surrender soon after, Onoda 10.000 days later.

The Opening Film of the Un Certain Regard section at the 2021 Cannes Festival, Onoda is a gripping and quietly forceful film about the human cost of misguided patriotism.  

Filmography: Dark Inclusion (2016).

 

An Online Conversation with the director

 

 


  • Director Arthur Harari
  • Production Nicolas Anthomé
  • Script Arthur Harari, Vincent Poymiro in collaboration with Bernard Cendron, freely inspired by the life of Hiroo Onoda
  • Editing Laurent Sénéchal
  • Cinematography Tom Harari
  • Music Sebastiano De Gennaro, Enrico Gabrielli, Andrea Poggio, Gak Sato, Olivier Marguerit
  • Actors Yuya Endo, Kanji Tsuda, Issei Ogata, Yuya Matsuura, Testsuya Chiba, Taiga Nakano
  • Festivals Cannes
  • Source Le Pacte, Paris