Nippon-kogu Ogata-Mura / Japan – Big Lagoon Village

NIPPON-KOKU OGATA-MURA / JAPAN – BIG LAGOON VILLAGE looks back at the history of Ogata-mura, a huge estate that was built as part of a large-scale land reclamation project in post-war Japan. In calm, meditative shots, the camera follows the different living areas of this village created on the drawing board and weaves them together with the life stories of the inhabitants. In the dichotomy of plan and reality, the film creates a portrait of this place once designated as a “model farming village” by the government and traces out the fault lines that lie between utopia and lived reality. (ara)