Akio Fujimoto¡¯s three feature films all feature Southeast Asian protagonists. In ¡°Passage of Life¡± (2017), a Burmese family wants to stay in Japan, but the father can¡¯t get a refugee visa. In ¡°Along the Sea¡± (2020), three Vietnamese women working in rural Japan deal with everything from an abusive boss to illness without any kind of safety net.
His latest and most ambitious film, ¡°Lost Land,¡± is set in Bangladesh, Thailand and Malaysia and was filmed with nonprofessional actors belonging to the Rohingya community. Though living in Myanmar for generations, over one million Rohingya people were forced to flee, mostly to neighboring Bangladesh, after a crackdown by Myanmar's military rulers in 2017.
Scripted by Fujimoto, the film plays like an observational documentary, with largely improvised dialogue and no narration or music. The handheld camerawork of cinematographer Yoshio Kitagawa (¡°Evil Does Not Exist¡±) strengthens this impression with an on-the-ground immediacy and, particularly in its night scenes, a mood of chaos and suffocating fear. But his camera also draws back to capture calmer, even idyllic moments.
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