Yakushima's Illusion (L'Illusion de Yakushima) (C) CINEFRANCE STUDIOS - KUMIE INC. Share on Facebook Share on X Share to Flipboard Send an Email Show additional share options Share on LinkedIn Share on Pinterest Share on Reddit Share on Tumblr Share on Whats App Print the Article Post a Comment When the Locarno Film Festival at the end of July unveiled director Naomi Kawase's (Embracing, The Mourning Forest) new film Yakushima's Illusion (L'Illusion de Yakushima), starring none other than Vicky Krieps (Corsage, The Dead Don't Hurt, Hot Milk), as a late addition to its competition lineup, it was considered a surprise and a coup. Not much was known about the movie, but the involvement of two big names in independent film had industry insiders intrigued. "Corry, a French coordinator of pediatric heart transplants, is sent to Japan where organ donation remains taboo," reads a synopsis of the film on the Locarno festival website. "As she fights to save a young boy, her partner Jin, a photographer from Yakushima, suddenly vanishes. He becomes a 'Johatsu,' as the Japanese call the 80,000 people who disappear overnight each year. Corry faces a double ordeal: saving a child while coping with the loss of the man she loves." Related Stories Movies Threesomes, S&M, Open Relationships and Love: Éric K. Boulianne's 'Follies' Sexes up Locarno Movies Oscars: Switzerland Picks Health-Care Drama 'Late Shift' as Best International Feature Submission As Kawase says in a director's note: "Through a foreign medical professional's eyes, this story weaves time and space to reveal post-pandemic shifts in human connection and Japan's lasting views on life and death passed to future generations." Johatsu, or "evaporation," is the word for Japanese people who disappear voluntarily to escape difficult situations, including financial debt, family conflict, or social pressures. Krieps, portraying Corry, stars along with Japan's Kanichiro as Jin in the French-, Japanese-, and English-language film that is a co-production between France, Japan, Belgium, and Luxembourg. Cinefrance International is handling international sales. Ahead of the film's Locarno world premiere on Friday, Kawase and Krieps talked to THR about Yakushima's Illusion, its inspirations, their collaboration, and presenting a film full of heart to a world full of conflict. "During COVID, with all the borders being closed and everything, I was really thinking about how people can connect with each other," Kawase tells THR via a translator. "At the same time, I was thinking about the situations in which people are pulled apart from each other, including this phenomenon of 'evaporation,' people disappearing, and then later of heart transplants. In the case of heart transplants, it means that children may die before their parents." In both cases, Johatsu and heart transplants, "we have a very specific situation in Japan where the families have certain control when deciding the death of these family members," Kawase explains. Casting Krieps was a chance to bring in an accomplished actress who can help add an outsider's view in the movie. "When I was discussing with my French agent how to deal with these very specific conditions in Japan through more objective perspectives, Vicky Krieps' name came up in the conversation." Krieps was happy to take on the challenge. "Shortly before the film, I felt a calling. Suddenly, Japan was on my mind," she tells THR. "I don't know why, and I remember saying to someone, 'I think I need to go to Japan.' And probably a week later, I received a call from a French agent that Naomi was looking for an actress, and I went for an audition because I thought I needed to go and meet this woman. I had seen her movies." That and the idea of going to Japan "felt like being under a spell or some enchantment," the actress recalls. "Maybe it's the culture and the old traditions that are so powerful, and how Japan deals with ghosts." Krieps had just lost someone "extremely close to me" before reading the script, so it felt natural to take on the role. "It wasn't like a casting. We met, and we both knew that we had a similar understanding of death and maybe ghosts and the connection of nature and life and death," Krieps explains. Kawase often mixes a documentarian's eye with fiction for a unique style. She brought the same approach to Yakushima's Illusion. "In most of my films, I actually have my characters stay and spend some time in the setting of the film," the filmmaker tells THR. "In this case, Vicky actually stayed in the hospital where we were shooting for a while, and she actually wore the doctor's garments, had her own office, and she would actually interact with the children there." The child actors in the movie did the same. "They would move around with the IV and everything, as if they really were patients in the hospital," Kawase added. "In this setting, the communication and interaction happened really naturally." Some real interactions from that pe