Rising from the Tsunami

A story about ghosts and spirits that shows how the tsunami waves that shook Japan in 2011 are still alive in the collective imagination of the people who suffered the tragedy. We watch in disbelief the construction of a huge breakwater wall of over 400 km which will completely block the opening to the sea of the villages along the coast of Tohoku. On March 11th 2011, an unprecedented tsunami devastated Japan, leaving more than 15,000 dead and the country devastated. This deadly wave was the result of a magnitude 9 earthquake that morning. For the inhabitants of the city of Sendai, capital of the Miyagi Prefecture, the sea has become a hostile element. Since then, an immense breakwater wall has been erected, while the missing people haunt life from the depths of the sea. As the tsunami wall spreads the length of the shoreline, so do ghosts and spirits returning home along the Japanese coast. The visible and the invisible worlds come together in this no-man’s land, where the reconstruction and the recovery from the great devastating wave are just beginning. A mysterious and poetic journey through the surviving testimonies of the catastrophe that show with great emotional depth how the tsunami affected their lives and how they maintain the belief that the spirits of the victims are still there, which causes their presence to become something real. Each image, sound and sensation transports us to a world halfway between life and death, where the absence of loved ones becomes more palpable than ever. (DocsBarcelona Distribución)