Kinder von Nagasaki

In the organizer's words:

この子を残して Kono ko o nokoshite

Director: KINOSHITA Keisuke
1983, 127 minutes, original language, 16 mm

The film is based on the records of doctor Nagai Takashi, who initially survived the atomic bombing of Nagasaki on August 9, 1945, but succumbed to the illness he suffered from radioactive radiation in 1951.
Shot from the perspective of Nagai's son, the low-budget production depicts the family's fate in the midst of devastation and death. The boy remembers how his father struggled to treat and care for the victims, even though he himself was already suffering from leukemia. His mother had died when the atomic bomb was dropped, and he and his sister had only survived because they were under the care of their grandmother. As an adult, he becomes a journalist and calls for nuclear weapons never to be used again.

Film series
The value of remembering
Japanese films against forgetting

In the current time of change, remembering and commemorating the past is more important than ever. In 2024, the Nobel Peace Prize was awarded to the Japanese anti-nuclear weapons organization "Nihon Hidankyo", a grassroots movement of survivors of the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki in August 1945. The Norwegian Nobel Committee's citation states that the group, founded in 1956, was awarded the Peace Prize for its efforts to achieve a world free of nuclear weapons and for demonstrating through testimony that nuclear weapons should never be used again.

Japanese film history also addresses the suffering and hardships that people had to contend with in connection with the war. The film series shows works by renowned directors that focus on the fate of individual people.

It begins with a family story based on the notes of a doctor(Kono ko o nokoshite). Music plays an important role in a Japanese soldier's fight for survival (Biruma no tategoto) and on an island, a teacher cares for her pupils(Nijûshi no hitomi). A docudrama depicts true events about a traveling theater group (Sakuratai chiru), followed by the story of a girl who folds cranes in the face of death(Senbazuru). A film about the skull of a kamikaze pilot(Fûon) and a production inspired by the historical figure Onoda Hirô(ONODA, Ichimanya o koete) conclude the program.

Price information:

Admission free