Homeland (Ieji in Japanese) is the first movie by award-winning television documentary producer Nao Kubota. Instead of interviewing people about their lives after the earthquake and tsunami which hit Japan on March 11, 2011, he made a drama to express what the survivors didn't want to say.
The story centres on one family which has been forced to leave home and abandon their rice field in the coastal town of Fukushima after the nuclear plant meltdown.
Soichi (Seiyo Uchino), who inherited the family farm, loses it in the disaster and must live in a temporary house with his wife, daughter and mother (Yuko Tanaka). His half-brother, Jiro (Kenichi Matsuyama), who left the family as a teenager, decides to come home to help.
This slow, quiet film captures the sadness of people in the aftermath. Scenes of deserted houses and rice fields bring home its impact. The final scene featuring Jiro and his mother planting crops, is particularly beautiful and symbolic.
Opens May 29