“City of a Thousand Suns” was screened at Yokogawa Cinema on November 19th at 15:30. This immersive film connects two city, Dublin and Hiroshima by employing poems and elegies. The directors of the film were Paula Kehoe, a director, script writer and producer born in Melbourne and is based in Ireland, and Feargal Ward, an Irish filmmaker who is based in Berlin. The screening was followed by a talk show of director Kehoe with an interviewer, Kazuyoshi Meiki, one of the main actors of the film.

The film, which delves into the memories and trauma of Hiroshima which experienced the atomic bombing, was largely influenced by a film “Hiroshima mon amour”(1959), which depicts the time during reconstruction of Hiroshima after the war. A man who travels in the film struggles in trying to understand “how can they perform such destructive act to the same human being” and “how can we continue to live as if nothing happened after experiencing such a tragedy.” In its production, with a help of film archives left in Hiroshima for reference, the directors expressed “a sense of being in a dream” by using slow motion and discreet colors. Also, through the poetic words in the film, it casts a question “what human being should be like?” The film has been screened only in Ireland and in the Yokogawa cinema in Japan. The director expressed her appreciation and hope saying, “I am honored that this film is screened in Hiroshima city where it was significantly influenced by. And I would like to send it to international film festivals to deliver to many people.” When the director also told that she enjoyed the in-person interaction with the audience in the mist of increased online communication time, the interviewer Meiki told the audience, “Please invite and talk to the director to help getting this film screened in many places.”

With an earnest eye, the director also mentioned about the current situation in Ukraine and the importance of telling memories saying, “The existence of nuclear weapons itself is a problem and not having been used so far is a miracle. There is a significant meaning that this film was screened at this time.” With a hope that this film connects not only two cities but also the whole world, the talk show was closed by the director’s word; “I will let you know about the next screening,” with a smile on her face.