FURUSATO

A small town in Fukushima's exclusion zone searches for normalcy after the world's largest 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. Having explored the region during the four years following the disaster, director Thorsten Trimpop 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.