Film: Yuki & Nina

The recording of an Okinawan song 'Tinsagu nu Hana', sung by UA with Yasukatsu Oshima, is featured in the film 'Yuki & Nina'. This film is co-directed by Japanese auteur Nobuhiro Suwa and French actor Hippolyte Girardot, and it was screened at the Directors' Fortnight which was held in parallel to the Cannes Film Festival 2009. The picture is on now in France and will be showing in Japan from January 2010.

'Yuki and Nina' is the story of a nine-year-old girl, Yuki (Noë Sampy), and her best friend Nina (Arielle Moutel), who both live in Paris.

Nobuhiro Suwa is a Japanese film director. His second film, 'M/Other', won the FIPRESCI Prize at the 1999 Cannes Film Festival and the award for best screenplay at the 50th Mainichi Film Awards. His film 'Un Couple Parfait' (2005) won the Special Prize of the Jury Award and the C.I.C.A.E. Award at the 58th Locarno Film Festival. In 2006, he participated in the French omnibus film 'Paris, je t'aime', which was the opening film of the Un Certain Regard selection at the 2006 Cannes Film Festival.
Hippolyte Girardot is a French actor and film director. He appeared in many films made by famous directors such as Jean-Luc Godard, Hou Hsian Hsien, Arnaud Desplechin, etc.

The song 'Tinsagu nu Hana' is a children's song of Okinawa. The recording was recorded for the educational television program 'Utauua NHK Doremino TV'. Yasukatsu Oshima participated in the recording by singing and playing the sanshin.

Here are some reviews of the film (most of them are written in French) :

Yuki & Nina -- Film Review (The Holywood Reporter, May 16, 2009)
Hippolyte Girardot. Conte peu cruel de la jeunesse ( www.humanite.fr December 9, 2009 )
Au fond des forêts de l'enfance ( www.lefigaro.fr November 9, 2009 )
Hippolyte Girardot:"Avec Nobuhiro Suwa, nous étions sur la même longueur d'onde" (www.lexpress.fr November 9, 2009)
Yuki et Nina (www.lepoint.fr November 12, 2009)
"Yuki et Nina" : ce que ressent l'enfant quand les parents se déchirent (www.lemonde.fr November 9, 2009)
Un film réalisé par échanges d'e-mails entre Nobuhiro Suwa et Hippolyte Girardot (www.lemonde.fr November 8, 2009)
YUKI & NINA (www.news-de-stars.com November 10, 2009)
Yuki & Nina (www.excessif.com)

This film was co-produced by Comme des Cinémas, Les Films du lendemain, Arte France Cinéma and Bitters End.

The official website of Yuki & Nina in Japan (in Japanese only)

December 14, 2009　 Radio, TV, Web Others