Awards and festivals

Film description

Humanity has been decimated by an unnamed disaster. The forlorn cities are still and quiet, almost like the interstellar spaces traveled by the android courier, Yoko Suzuki, as she delivers packages to the last recipients scattered around the universe.

This time, Sion Sono, beloved by audiences worldwide for his panache in using radical stylistics, drastic narrations, and cross-genre madness, sends us - literally - to a whole different planet. Black and white shots, scarce dialogs, contemplation of details, a discreet humor and a subtle narration, with its emotional weight played out in the shades, understatements, the sound of water dripping down from the tap - associations with "Alphaville" or "Stalker" are not a coincidence. Yet the director does not get stuck in the existential speculations, introducing discreet humor and playing with the convention of raw science-fiction - technology is one thing, but preparing green tea and dusting the tatami mats cannot be forgotten. Despite many human reactions, Yoko is still a robot and she approaches her mission pragmatically, watching the post apocalyptic world with (curious) distance.

In "Whispering Star," the director returns to the script he wrote 25 years ago - he claims it is one of his most important and most personal projects. The film was shot partly in the Fukushima region, with the inhabitants of the prefecture, affected by the 2011 catastrophe, acting as extras. According to the tradition rooted in the history of world cinema, Sono employs the science-fiction convention to talk about the present. He also proves that he can be the master of the extravagant extreme, at the same time perfectly using the lyricism.

Jagoda Murczyńska