Johatsu – Into Thin Air
Germany, Japan2024documentary86'International Documentary Competition
In Japan, there are specialised companies that help people to vanish into thin air. Some would like to disappear because of debts, others for fear of their boss or family and some individuals out of shame. As so-called johatsu, they may leave everything behind and start a completely new life someplace else. The film shows a few of such escapes from the perspective of escapees, their loved ones, as well as those who organise disappearances. The viewer becomes immersed in the mysterious world of double identities, hidden family dramas, unfulfilled desires and ambitions.
- directed by
- Andreas HartmannQ&A guest
A Berlin-based filmmaker and producer. He graduated from the HFF "Konrad Wolf" in 2011 and has been Meisterschüler of Prof. Thomas Arslan at the Berlin University of the Arts (UdK). In 2014, he was Artist-in-residence at the Goethe-Institut Villa Kamogawa in Kyoto, Japan. In 2017, he was nominated for the German TV award Grimme Preis and received the Gerd Ruge Grant. His third feature-length film "A Free Man"won the Busan Cinephile Award for the Best World Documentary at the 22nd Busan International Film Festival.
Arata Mori
A Japanese film director, editor and artist, based in Berlin and Tokyo. His creative practice crosses over the fields of documentary filmmaking, TV documentary, dance-theatre and architecture. He is the graduate of the Fine Art course at Central Saint Martins in London and 2022 grantee of Asian Cultural Council's individual fellowship. In 2021, his creative documentary film "A Million", a fake travelogue about an imaginary city on the real urban cities along Chinese new silk road, was premiered at the 64th DOK Leipzig.
- cinematography
- Andreas Hartmann
- script
- Andreas Hartmann
- music
- Jana Irmert, Mika Takehara, Fabrizio Tentoni
- sound
- Linus Nickl, Nils Vogel-Bartling
- editing
- Kai Eiermann
- production
- Andreas Hartmann, Ruoxi Zhang Q&A guest (Ossa Film)
- Photo
