The Road Home
(Kaerimichi)
JAPAN / 2017 / Japanese / Color / Blu-ray / 48 min
Director: Oura Miran
Photography: Oura Miran, Oura Hitoshi, Oura Kumiko, Oura Hana
Music: Godaguchi Ko
Supported by: Nagata Seminar at Musashi University, Numano Natsuko
Source: Oura Miran
Following the 2011 nuclear disaster, the Oura family was forced to evacuate their home in Namie-cho, Fukushima Prefecture. Several years later, their eldest daughter Miran, who had moved to Tokyo, began filming her family because she wanted to scrutinize the concept of being considered “disaster survivors.” Amidst shifting familial relations—gradually revealed to the viewer—and the continual shock of the realities they confront, each family member is seen groping for their own “road home.”
[Director’s Statement] This documentary was born from the feeling of discomfort that I always felt with the term “disaster survivor,” and I took up my camera in the hopes of gaining some insight. As I filmed, I decided to focus on what each of my family members were looking at. Everyone in the family participated in the shooting: we all made this documentary together. In fact, I was probably the least amenable one among us.
Oura MiranBorn in Fukushima Prefecture in 1994. Graduated from the Department of Socio-Media Studies in Musashi University’s Faculty of Sociology. This film served as her graduation thesis project, and showed at the 2017 PIA Film Festival. It also screened in an earlier version in Yamagata Rough Cut! at YIDFF 2015.
Interview