Drive My Car

Borrowing its title from a Beatles song and storyline from on one of Haruki Murakami's short stories, Hamaguchi's almost three-hour long, suggestive masterpiece is firmly rooted in both Western and Japanese culture. The film was praised during this year's edition of the Cannes Film Festival, and won the award for best screenplay.

When theater director, actor, and fresh widower Kafuku (Nishijima) travels to Hiroshima to direct a multilingual production of Chekhov's Uncle Vanya, he feels more alienated than ever. In the middle of his own identity crisis, he is also confronted with the fact that he is turning blind on one eye, and he has to hire a driver for his beloved red Saab 900. The conversations with the young, female driver in the bright red Saab become an important basis in Kafuku's attempt to confront his own demons, in the gray and diffuse urban landscape of Hiroshima and in the increasingly challenging rehearsals of the play.

Jon Sæter

Director

Ryûsuke Hamaguchi (b. 1978) is a Japanese director and screenwriter. He first came to the attention of an international audience with Drive My Car in 2021, which earned him two Oscar nominations. For Wheel of Fortune and Fantasy, he won the Silver Bear in Berlin the same year.