T H E  U N S E E N  F E S T I V A L

In Furusato, by Thorsten Trimpop, a small town in Fukushima’s exclusion zone searches for normalcy after the world’s biggest nuclear catastrophe since Chernobyl. A teen rocker, a media-savvy activist, a conflicted TEPCO engineer, and a female horse breeder cope with the loss of their homes and the unseen danger of radiation. Each faces a crucial decision: to stay or to go? “Furusato,” or “hometown,” is an unsettling portrait of daily life amid an ongoing cataclysm, one with repercussions far beyond Japan’s shores. Furusato reveals a way of life that has taken hold amid tremendous uncertainty and risk, in a place rarely seen and often misunderstood. Culminating in a samurai horse race with a thousand-year tradition, the film offers a space to reflect on the larger issues of progress, its untold sacrifices, and the true cost of the way we live today. Watch a trailer.

Video. Color/Sound. 2016. 94 min.

This film will screen as part of The Unseen Festival at Counterpath on Monday, September 25, 2017.

Thorsten Trimpop is a filmmaker based in Chicago. His new film Furusato, is a human-scale portrait of a small town in Japan’s nuclear exclusion zone. It premiered at DOK Leipzig, where it won the grand prize, the Golden Dove, and is now touring film festivals worldwide. His first feature film, The Irrational Remains, premiered at the Berlin Film Festival and won numerous awards. His earlier film and theatre work have been presented at venues as the Locarno Film Festival, The International Film Festival Rotterdam, and on European Television. Thorsten taught at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Harvard University, and Boston University. From 2014–17 he was a fellow at MIT Open Documentary Lab. He is currently an Assistant Professor at the School of the Art Institute Chicago.