Evil Does Not Exist

Takumi and his daughter Hana live in a small village near Tokyo in a modest and harmonious way, according to the cycles of nature. But a project to build a glamping site threatens to destabilise the community, interfering with the water supply and profoundly disrupting the lives of those who live there. An allegory about the price we pay for disrespecting nature, Evil Does Not Exist carries a message that is all too familiar, but whose impact here is tremendous. The filmmaker's sweeping visual language is matched by Eiko Ishibashi's irresistibly beautiful soundtrack, in a film that was greeted with an eight-minute standing ovation at the Venice Film Festival, and which earned Hamaguchi the Grand Jury Prize at the same festival.