In FRIENDS AFTER 3.11, director Shunji Iwai does more than simply turn his documentary lens on the devastated lives and countryside of the Tohoku region following the devastation of March 11, 2011. He asks the difficult questions: Where is Japan right now? How has the country been changed by what its people experienced? What are the chances of a radical rethink?

Friendships are forged through crisis. To create his film Iwai Shunji gathered together those that had become important to him post 3.11 and held long discussions. Their controversial conversations revolve around science and politics, self-interest and altruism, money and responsibility and renouncing atomic power.

We thus meet a young activist in her school uniform, speak to Malaysian director Tan Chui Mui and learn that the same number of people commit suicide in Japan as run the Tokyo marathon. Iwai also felt moved to visit the stricken regions with actress Matsuda Miyuki in tow, as he himself comes from the Sendai, a city directly affected by the disaster.

FRIENDS AFTER 3.11 sets itself apart from the many other post 3.11 films in that it looks beyond the stories of devastation and hope and attempts to take stock of the new Japan in an intellectually comprehensive and challenging fashion.

This is the North American premiere of this film.

In Japanese with English Subtitles独特の映像世界で定評のある岩井俊二監督が、震災の衝撃を受け制作したドキュメンタリー。監督自身も仙台市の出身で、震災後に出会い話した友人たちとの会話を通して、日本の現在やこれからを描き出す。脱原発宣言を掲げて話題となった城南信用金庫の理事長・吉原毅や『原発のウソ』の著者・小出裕章などのインタビューから明かされる事実は観る者の心に突き刺さるものばかりだ。 福島第一原発の事故以来、脱原発を宣言した岩井監督が、脱原発を訴え続けた人々を中心に取材を敢行。カメラは『ミツバチの羽音と地球の回転』などで知られる鎌仲ひとみ監督や俳優・山本太郎、環境エネルギー政策研究所所長の飯田哲也などの姿を捉えていく。ナビゲーターは3.11後原発問題に関心を持ったという女優の松田美由紀。