Blind Willow, Sleeping Woman (FR/CA/NL/LU 2022)

A talkative giant frog, a lost cat, an unmotivated businessman, a frustrated woman, a schizophrenic accountant – characters we know from Haruki Murakami. The animated adaptation of the collection of short stories “Blind Willow, Sleeping Woman” (2006), connected together in a coherent narrative by composer and filmmaker Pierre Földes, lends imagery to the wonders and absurdities of Murakami’s storytelling in a poetic and atmospheric way. The narrative follows the film’s characters a few days after the earthquake and the tsunami from 2011 and explores the ways in which they need to come to terms with the consequences of the catastrophe. They experience pervasive life-changes and must seek the meaning of life anew. Meanwhile, the giant frog tries to save Tokyo from another earthquake …