Half-Life in Fukushima

Description

“Half-life” is a term used to describe the radioactive decay of isotopes. It also characterizes the quality of existence of elderly Japanese farmer Naoto Matsumura. Five years after the 2011 Fukushima nuclear disaster rendered the land of his ancestors a toxic stew, he refuses to leave it. Matsumura battles despondency and depression as he tends the region’s abandoned animals and negotiates survival in the radioactive red zone, a surreal ghost shell of what was once a thriving seaside city. Wandering through Fukushima’s abandoned downtown, he finds human contact in contamination suit-clad cleanup crews and explores the concrete ruins of the tsunami-shattered seawall. Directors Mark Olexa and Francesca Scalisi’s honed, introspective camerawork captures Matsumura’s journey in the comforting and ordinary rhythms of nature. The soothing sound of the sea and the soft winds blowing in the pastures create a false sense of optimism, but everything in this environment is poisoned, including the delicious mushrooms that carpet the surrounding forest. With minimal commentary and a graceful and sympathetic eye, Half-Life in Fukushima underlines the danger inherent in nuclear power in its depiction of Fukushima’s sinister remnants and Matsumura’s lonely last stand. Accompanying the documentary is Valentina, a strangely soothing, compassionate, and softly magical cinéma vérité short, in which an old couple in Mexico’s remote Sierra Madres tend to their tribe of goats. —Gustavus Kundahl

Trailer

Film Details