Minamata
Synopsis
Three-time Academy Award® nominee Johnny Depp plays celebrated war photographer W. Eugene Smith in a real life David vs Goliath story, pitting Smith against a powerful corporation responsible for poisoning the people of Minamata, Japan in 1971.
New York, 1971. W. Eugene Smith (Johnny Depp) is a celebrated photo-journalist and photo-essayist, but he feels devoid of inspiration. He is at such a low ebb he even considers suicide. Then a Japanese-American woman Aileen (Minami) shows up to convince him to come to the Japanese coastal city of Minamata, whose community has been ravaged by mercury poisoning, the result of decades of gross industrial negligence by Japan’s Chisso Corporation.
Eugene eventually agrees to go, with the reluctant and secret support of Life Magazine head Robert Hayes (Bill Nighy). With Aileen, Smith immerses himself in the community, documenting the people’s efforts to live with Minamata Disease and their passionate fight to achieve recognition and compensation from Chisso. It is a life-changing experience — one which brings Eugene redemption, love, new purpose and his greatest-ever photograph. A photograph that will change the world and provide desperately needed fuel to the fledgling environmental protection movement.
'Minamata' is a moving redemptive story of how one man’s powerful photograph impacted the world, yet in order to find it he had to open his heart.
Official Selection Berlin International Film Festival 2020 - Berlinale Special - World premiere
Details
- Year
- 2020
- Running Time
- 115 min
- Director
- Andrew Levitas
- Producer
- Sam Sarkar, Kevan Van Thompson, Andrew Levitas, Johnny Depp
- Executive Producer
- Stephen Deuters, Jason Forman, Phil Hunt, Compton Ross, Stephen Spence, Peter Touche
- Screenwriter
- David K. Kessler, Stephen Deuters, Andrew Levitas, Jason Forman
- Director of Photography
- Benoît Delhomme
- Music
- Ryuichi Sakamoto
- Principal Cast
- Johnny Depp, Hiroyuki Sanada, Minami, Ryo Kase, Jun Kunimura, Katherine Jenkins, Bill Nighy
Production status
Complete
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Last updated 12th February 2020
