''Desert of Namibia'' () is a 2024

psychological drama Psychological drama, or psychodrama, is a Genre, subgenre of Drama (film and television), drama and psychological fiction literatures that generally focuses upon the emotional, mental, and psychological development of the protagonists and other c ...

film directed and written by Yoko Yamanaka. It stars Yuumi Kawai, Daichi Kaneko, and Kanichiro. For her performance, Kawai won a Blue Ribbon Award for Best Actress and received nominations at the 17th Asia Pacific Screen Awards and 18th Asian Film Awards. The film had its world premiere at the

2024 Cannes Film Festival The 77th annual Cannes Film Festival took place from 14 to 25 May 2024. American filmmaker and actress Greta Gerwig served as jury president for the main competition. American filmmaker Sean Baker (filmmaker), Sean Baker won the Palme d'Or, the ...

on 17 May 2024.

Premise

A young directionless woman tries to find herself while working as a

beautician Cosmetology (from Greek , ''kosmētikos'', "beautifying"; and , ''-logia'') is the study and application of beauty treatment. Branches of specialty include hairstyling, skin care, cosmetics, manicures/pedicures, non-permanent hair removal such a ...

and navigating a new relationship.

Cast

* Yuumi Kawai as Kana * Daichi Kaneko as Hayashi * Kanichiro as Honda *Yuzumi Shintani as Ichika *Keisuke Horibe as Koichiro *

Makiko Watanabe is a Japanese actress. She has appeared in more than 60 films since 1996. Awards Watanabe was given the award for best script at the 1999 Mainichi Film Awards for '' M/Other'' with director Nobuhiro Suwa is a Japanese film director worki ...

as Mari

Release

''Desert of Namibia'' had its world premiere at the

on 17 May 2024 in the

Directors' Fortnight The Directors' Fortnight (, formerly ) is an independent section held in parallel to the Cannes Film Festival. It was started in 1969 by the French Directors Guild after the events of May 1968 resulted in cancellation of the Cannes festival as a ...

section. It won the FIPRESCI Prize at the festival and the director Yoko Yamanaka became the youngest woman to win the award. In November 2024, it was reported that Kani Releasing acquired the film's North American rights.

Reception

Siddhant Adlakha of '' Variety'' described the film as "an intentionally languid psychological portrait". William Repass of ''

Slant Magazine ''Slant Magazine'' is an American online publication that features reviews of movies, music, TV, DVDs, theater, and video games, as well as interviews with actors, directors, and musicians. The site covers various film festivals like the New Yor ...

'' gave the film two and a half stars out of four and praised Kawai's performance, describing it as "arresting". Mark Schilling of ''

The Japan Times ''The Japan Times'' is Japan's largest and oldest English-language daily newspaper. It is published by , a subsidiary of News2u Holdings, Inc. It is headquartered in the in Kioicho, Chiyoda, Tokyo. History ''The Japan Times'' was launched by ...

'' gave the film three out of five stars and described Kawai's performance as "masterful and multilayered". Writing for ''

Screen International ''Screen International'' is a British film magazine covering the international film business. It is published by Media Business Insight, a British B2B media company which also owned '' Broadcast''. The magazine is primarily aimed at those involv ...

'', Fionnuala Halligan gave the film a mixed review and criticized the vague reference to mental health issues.

Accolades

Notes

References

External links

*{{IMDb title, tt32128870 2024 drama films 2020s psychological drama films Japanese psychological drama films 2020s Japanese-language films 2020s Japanese films Films about bipolar disorder