The Red Spot (2008)
SYNOPSIS
The Japanese student Aki Onodera travels in her family’s tracks from Tokyo to Germany. In idyllic East Allgaeu she meets the Webers, who take her in as their guest. But soon, the situation of the family becomes turbulent by her appearance…
Feature Film, 35mm, 82 min.
Screenplay: Marie Miyayama, Christoph Tomkewitsch
Director and Editor: Marie Miyayama
Director of Photography: Oliver Sachs
Music: Helmut Sinz
Sounddesign: Sven Mevissen
Production Design: Gabriele Mai, Shinjii Shimizu
Line Producer: Christian Müller, Kinya Yagi
Producer: Martin Blankemeyer, Miyako Sonoki
Cast: Yuki Inomata, Hans Kremer, Orlando Klaus,
Imke Büchel, Zora Thiessen, Shinya Owada,
Mikiko Otonashi, Yuu Saitô, Tôru Minegishi,
Toshihiro Yashiba, Nahoko Fort-Nishigami
Produced by: Münchner Filmwerkstatt e.V.
Chase Film International Co.
Co-produced by: FGV Schmidle, HFF München
Financially supported by: FilmFernsehFonds Bayern,
ARRI Film & TV Services, Manfred Durniok Foundation
World Sales: ARRI Media Worldsales
Distribution: Movienet (Germany), K-Films Amérique (Quebec)
Award: German Film Promotion Award 2008, Babarian Film Award for up-and-coming Producer 2008, Audience Award at the German Film Festival Ludwigshafen 2009, Golden Heidi at HFF München Film Show 2009, Wilhelm-Dieterle-Filmpreis Ludwigshafen 2009
Festivals: Montréal World Film Festival 2008, Hof International Film Festival 2008, Biberach Film Festival 2008, Passau International Film Festival 2008, Braunschweig International Film Festival 2008, Asia Filmfest Munich 2008, Cairo International Film Festival 2008, Goa International Film Festival of India 2008, Chennai International Film Festival 2008, Asian Hot Shots Festival Berlin 2009, Göteborg International Film Festival 2009, Augsburg Independent Film Festival 2009, Japanese Film Festival Hamburg 2009, International Film Festival Innsbruck 2009, Shanghai International Film Festival 2009, German Film Festival Ludwigshafen 2009, German Film Festival Mexico 2009, Love is Folly Film Festival Varna 2009, Hachenburg New German Film Festival 2009, Aich International Women´s Film Festival 2009, German Film Festival Tokyo 2009, Tokyo International
Women´s Film Festival 2009, German Film Festival Singapur 2009, KINO/09 Hongkong 2009, Sao Paulo International Film Festival 2009 (International Perspective), Tamil Nadu Film Festival Chennai India 2009, Cork Film Festival Irland 2009, Lone Star Film Festival Fort Worth U.S.A. 2009, Augenblick German Film Festival Alsace France 2010, International Women's Film Festival in Seoul Korea 2010, Shinsedai Film Festival Toronto Kanada 2010
STORY
The young Japanese student Aki Onodera is haunted by dreams of long-lost memories from her early childhood. While she should really be concentrating on finding a job after her studies, instead she goes to her parents’ house and discovers an old package from a foreign land tucked away in a storage closet. An old camera containing film and a yellowed envelope with a letter and a map of a foreign country with a red spot marking a particular location seem to be the key to her dreams.
Despite her parents’ and boyfriend’s apprehension, she travels alone to Germany to look for this place. On her search in the idyllic East Allgaeu area, she goes to the local police station looking for help, where the 18-year-old Elias Weber is being questioned. When Elias’ father comes to the police station to pick him up, the policeman asks him to take the Japanese girl with them, as the place she is looking for is near their house.
Father and son drop Aki off near the edge of a forest and drive home. After dinner, Elias takes off with his sister to pick up his motorcycle from the police station and they run into the Japanese girl, who, drenched from the rain, is desperately looking for a place to stay for the night. They take her into town, and after not being able to find a hotel room, they take her back home with them and offer her their guest room.
The next day, Elias helps Aki look for the location on the map where the red mark is. According to Aki, there is supposed to be a memorial stone there for Aki’s biological family, who died at that spot 18 years ago. Later on that evening, Elias gets into a hefty argument with his father which then turns physical. Elias runs out of the house, followed by his father who already has a guilty conscience about hitting his son. Although it is not her intention, Aki’s presence and the search for the past seem to intensify the tension among the Weber family and finally lead to light being shed on family secret.
When Aki finally finds the spot she has been looking for, everyone involved must come to terms with the past in order to make way for a new beginning…