An anti-tsunami wall that does not impede the passage of spirits
April's documentary shows how Japanese society has overcome the tragedy of the 2011 tsunami.
DocsBarcelona, a project around the world of documentary film that each month proposes a screening in different cinemas around the country, brings us this April Rising from the Tsunami, a 68-minute French-Japanese production released in 2019 that can be seen throughout the month in different civic centres and libraries in the city. The first opportunity will be at the Esquerra de l'Eixample - Agustí Centelles Library on 5 April at 6.30 pm.
Hélène Robert and Jeremy Perrin direct this film that takes us to the coast of Tohoku, Japan, where, following the tsunami that devastated the city in 2011, an immense 400 km long breakwater is being built that will completely block the coastal villages from opening up to the sea.
Through surviving witnesses to the catastrophe, which caused more than 15,000 deaths and major damage, the story is presented to us as a journey between the real and the unreal. The real, with the memories of what happened and the construction of the breakwater that should prevent a similar tragedy in the future, but also the unreal, because this breakwater cannot stop the return of the spirits of those who died drowned by the sea. The people who appear in the documentary make us discover that they live with "the belief that the spirits of the victims are still present, to the point that they become real", as the synopsis of the documentary explains.
In addition to the screening on the 5th at 6. 30 pm at the Esquerra de l'Eixample - Agustí Centelles Library (free admission), the documentary can be seen on the 13th at 7:30 pm at Cinemes Girona (€7), on the 17th at 8:30 pm at the Teatre de Sarrià (€3), on the 18th at 7 pm at Casa Elizalde (free admission), on the 20th at 7 pm at the Auditori de Sant Martí and at the Ateneu Fort Pienc Civic Centre (free admission), on the 25th at 6:30 pm at the Vilapicina i la Torre Llobeta Library (free admission), on the 28th at 8.30 pm at the Lluïsos d'Horta (€4), and on the 30th at 8:30 pm at the Teatre de Sarrià (€3). You can check all DocsBarcelona's April programme at this link.