Kaoru Oda’s latest film Underground, officially selected for the Forum section of the 75th Berlin International Film Festival, will be celebrated with a special retrospective titled “Kaoru Oda Special 2025” at Shibuya Euro Space in Tokyo. The event will run from February 22 (Saturday) to March 7 (Friday), 2025.
The retrospective will feature 12 films directed by Oda, spanning both short and feature-length works. Included in the lineup are her highly praised 2010 debut Thus a Noise Speaks, which received accolades from director Béla Tarr, the award-winning feature Cenote, the short documentary Karaoke Café Bosa about her mother’s workplace, and GAMA, a mid-length film that connects to Underground, with Nao Yoshika portraying the character “Shadow.”
This retrospective offers a deep dive into Oda’s 15-year filmmaking journey, highlighting her evolution as a director. On February 24 (Monday, public holiday), Oda will also participate in a special event, where she will engage directly with audiences. Additional information, including the full schedule, will be available on the official Underground website.
A comment from Kaoru Oda has arrived in celebration of the upcoming special screening.
With the release of my new feature film Underground, I am honored to have a special screening of my works. My filmography may seem inconsistent, ranging from films about myself and my family, to those shot in Sarajevo and Mexico, some shorter and some a bit longer, sometimes labeled as documentaries and sometimes not. However, I feel that the transition from filming personal struggles to exploring unknown places with my camera has been a natural progression for me.
Throughout this process, I have always wondered how to best represent the relationship between the camera (myself) and what’s in front of it (people, land, events) in an honest way. Amidst many mistakes and imperfections, there have been moments when I felt something was captured, and I have gathered these fragments and connected them in editing.
One of the motivations behind my filmmaking is the desire to understand others and to be understood by them. Recently, I’ve come to believe that we can never truly understand others, and that thinking we can understand someone—whether they’re family or a complete stranger—is presumptuous. Even so, my emotions remain in my heart, and I hope that this sense of distance is reflected in the images of the works featured in this retrospective.
―――Kaoru Oda
Underground will be released nationwide starting Saturday, March 1. Additionally, at Eurospace, a documentary titled FUKUSHIMA with BÉLA TARR, which Kaoru Oda recorded during Béla Tarr’s film production workshop in Fukushima Prefecture, will be screened for one week only, from Saturday, February 15 to Friday, February 21.
Kaoru Oda Film Retrospective
Special Screening at Eurospace: February 22 (Sat) – March 7 (Fri) [Scheduled]
Screening Works:
[Feature Films]
- ARAGANE (68 minutes / 2015 / Supervising Director: Béla Tarr)
Yamagata International Documentary Film Festival 2015 Special Prize in the Asia Waves Section
Official Selection, Lisbon International Documentary Film Festival 2015
Official Selection, Mar del Plata International Film Festival 2015
Official Selection, Taiwan International Documentary Film Festival 2016
Set in a century-old coal mine in Breza, Bosnia and Herzegovina, 300 meters underground, ARAGANE captures men working in the dark alongside mining machines and the sound of pickaxes. In this life-and-death environment, what drives these men as they push their bodies to the limit? A representative work by Kaoru Oda, received with acclaim at film festivals worldwide. - Toward A Common Tenderness (63 minutes / 2017)
Official Selection, Leipzig International Documentary & Animation Film Festival 2017
Official Selection, Japan Cuts 2018
Shot in Oda’s hometown in Japan and using previously unshown footage from his three years of study at the Sarajevo Film School, this personal documentary explores themes like sexuality, cross-border dialogue, poverty, and labor, with powerful camerawork questioning the essence of documentary filmmaking. - Cenote (75 minutes / 2019)
Winner of the First Nagisa Ōshima Award
Official Selection, Rotterdam International Film Festival 2020
Official Selection, Yamagata International Documentary Film Festival 2019
Set in the cenotes of the northern Yucatán Peninsula, Mexico, this film explores the sacred wells used by the Maya civilization for both water and human sacrifice. Connecting past and present memories of the Maya people, it floats between water and land, evoking a sense of light and dark as it echoes distant memories.
[Medium-Length Films]
- Thus a Noise Speaks (38 minutes / 2010 / Japan)
Audience Award, Nara International Film Festival 2011, NARA-wave Section
A personal coming-out story, the protagonist confesses to their family during a summer visit, but faces rejection. Disappointed, the protagonist begins making a film about the confession, leading to a reenactment of the experience by the family. This film received high praise from director Béla Tarr and led Oda to enroll at the film.factory school. - GAMA (53 minutes / 2023)
Official Selection, Yamagata International Documentary Film Festival 2023
Set in the caves of Okinawa, where many lives were lost during the Battle of Okinawa, GAMA follows a man guiding peace talks in the cave. The presence of a woman, portrayed by Naoi Yoshikai, adds a connection between the past and present, offering a new dimension to Oda’s filmmaking.
[Short Films]
- the thread of red Cocoons (13 minutes / 2012)
A girl waits for a bus while performing string games. As the bus stops, more passengers board, arriving at the destination marked by torchlight. Set against the backdrop of Kyoto’s “Matsuage” fire festival, this film links the spiritual and the earthly through the hands of the girls. - Ko Oh (19 minutes / 2014 / Supervising Director: Béla Tarr)
Filmed in the Bosnian village of Umoljani, this film captures the essence of life, death, and the interconnectedness of all beings in a simple village, reflecting Oda’s journey from Japan to Bosnia for his studies at film.factory. - FLASH (25 minutes / 2015)
A train journey from Sarajevo to Zagreb prompts the filmmaker to reflect on their earliest memories, questioning what it means to remember a beginning that is elusive. - Shikisairon Joshō (6 minutes / 2017)
Shot on 16mm black-and-white film, this short explores Goethe’s thoughts on light, darkness, and the emergence of colors through personal history. - Kaze no Kyōkai (12 minutes / 2018)
A documentary capturing the restoration of Tadao Ando’s “Wind Church” in Kobe, Japan, revealing the passage of time through the weathered concrete and the reopening of the church’s doors. - Night Cruise (7 minutes / 2019)
A poetic journey through Osaka’s waterways, combining footage from two different cruises to create a captivating visual experience. - Karaoke Cafe Bosa (13 minutes / 2022)
A glimpse into a karaoke café in suburban Osaka, a place where elderly locals gather. Oda’s camera preserves the traces and memories of the people who frequent the café, particularly focusing on his mother, who works there.
Special thanks to: FieldRain, trixta
Distribution: Sleepin
For the screening schedule and further details, please visit the Underground official website:
https://underground-film.com/
