Screening times:
Sunday, August 18, 6:30 PM - Audience Poll Winner for Closing Night Film!

Ryusuke Hamaguchi | Japan | 2023 | 106m | Japanese with English subtitles
with Hitoshi Omika, Ryo Nishikawa, Ryuji Kosaka, Ayaka Shibutani

Winner of our audience poll for closing film!

Takumi and his daughter Hana live in Mizubiki Village, close to Tokyo. Like generations before them, they live a modest life respecting the cycles and order of nature. One day, the village inhabitants become aware of a plan to build a glamping site near Takumi’s house; offering city residents a comfortable, curated ‘escape’ to nature.

When two company representatives from Tokyo arrive in the village to hold a meeting, it becomes clear the project will have a negative impact on the local water supply. The agency’s mismatched intentions endanger both the ecosystem and the way of life of the people living there, but the two representatives quickly learn the complexity of the situation they're facing and Takumi's commitment to the village.

Ryusuke Hamaguchi is the filmmaker who gave us Wheel of Fortune and Fantasy and the Oscar-winning Drive My Car (both of which screened at Carbon Arc Cinema). He returns with a mysterious eco-drama one solidly counterintuitive to genre tropes. It's thoughtful, meditative, and character-driven, gently taking us to Mizubiki Village and into the surrounding woods. It lets us imagine our lives as both residents and interlopers, and how the declarative title relates to the story told.

"As he's done before, Hamaguchi gives us characters who are too complicated and richly drawn to be reduced to any one type. Yet that doesn't explain how hauntingly different this movie feels from his other work." -Justin Chang, NPR

"In its own discreet, modest way, 'Evil Does Not Exist' leaves us with a haunting sense of personal and ecological apocalypse." -Bilge Ebiri, Vulture

"Hamaguchi is a filmmaker that wants the audience’s constant engagement; always finding a way to the heart through the brain. 'Evil Does Not Exist' is as observant and humane as Ozu and as politically charged as Ken Loach." -Andrew Parker, The Gate

Silver Lion Grand Jury Prize - 2023 Venice International Film Festival
FIPRESCI Award (Venice IFF 2023) - International Federation of Film Critics
Best Film Award (Official Competition) - 2023 BFI London Film Festival
Jury Grand Prize - 2023 Asia Pacific Screen Awards

Tickets $8.75 ($8 cash at the door if available).