Mohammad Rasoulof and O Mipo have received the Tokyo International Film Festival's Kurosawa Akira Award, with a trophy and JPY1 million each. Variety reports that their appearances also explored the pressures and personal circumstances behind filmmaking.
Different routes to human stories
The committee chaired by Yamada Yoji highlighted Rasoulof's treatment of human-rights repression, including There Is No Evil and The Seed of the Sacred Fig. Rasoulof described turning away from metaphor toward more direct storytelling after his arrest in 2010.
He also cited Jafar Panahi while discussing pressure on Iranian cinema.
For O, the committee praised a nonjudgmental attention to people on society's margins and her direction of children. She explained that How Dare You used a complete screenplay and extensive rehearsals, despite performances that viewers sometimes mistake for unscripted observation.
Making room to keep working
O said raising children had once made her believe her career was over. Hearing Ando Sakura discuss the difficulty of combining parenting and filmmaking helped her return. She called for an industry that accommodates family care and other responsibilities.
She also remembered longtime composer Tanaka Takuto, whose death preceded news of the award, and treated the honour as encouragement to continue.
Both directors connected cinema with a wish for peace. For How Dare You, O held weekend workshops instead of formal auditions and cast mostly first-time child actors. Their phrasing reshaped the screenplay she wrote with Takada Ryo during extensive rehearsals, a process she carries into her continuing work.