Select Japan is delighted to present an extremely rare screening of Mitsuo Yanagimachi’s masterpiece, Fire Festival, which will be available on Blu-ray for the first time via Third Window Films on 7 December.

The screening will be introduced by strand curator George Crosthwait.

Set against the backdrop of Japan’s 1980s economic boom, Mitsuo Yanagimachi’s Fire Festival offers a haunting exploration of modernity, spirituality, and humanity’s increasingly fragile relationship with nature.  

In a rural seaside village in Mie Prefecture, rugged lumberjack Tatsuo resists efforts to reshape the region through tourism development and the construction of a marine park. Deeply connected to the mountains, forests and local spiritual traditions, he finds himself increasingly isolated as economic pressures and generational shifts transform the community around him. As divisions deepen between mountain and sea dwellers, rumours spread and grievances simmer beneath the surface, with acts of sabotage and environmental degradation foreshadowing an eruption of violence.  

A landmark of 1980s Japanese cinema, Fire Festival was screened in the Un Certain Regard section at the 1985 Cannes Film Festival, and remains a mesmerising portrait of a community suspended between ancient beliefs and an uncertain future.

Cast:
Kinya Kitaoji, Kiwako Taichi, Norihei Miki, Junko Miyashita