The Upcoming
  • Cinema & Tv
    • Movie reviews
    • Film festivals
      • Berlin
      • Tribeca
      • Sundance London
      • Cannes
      • Locarno
      • Venice
      • London
      • Toronto
    • Show reviews
  • Music
    • Live music
  • Food & Drinks
    • News & Features
    • Restaurant & bar reviews
    • Interviews & Recipes
  • Theatre
  • Art
  • Travel & Lifestyle
  • Literature
  • Fashion & Beauty
    • Accessories
    • Beauty
    • News & Features
    • Shopping & Trends
    • Tips & How-tos
    • Fashion weeks
      • London Fashion Week
      • London Fashion Week Men’s
      • New York Fashion Week
      • Milan Fashion Week
      • Paris Fashion Week
      • Haute Couture
  • Join us
    • Editorial unit
    • Our writers
    • Join the team
    • Join the mailing list
    • Support us
    • Contact us
  • Competitions
  • Facebook

  • Twitter

  • Instagram

  • YouTube

  • RSS

Berlin Film Festival 2015

Nuclear Nation II

Berlin Film Festival 2015: Nuclear Nation II | Review
1 March 2015
Gioia Kennedy
Avatar
Gioia Kennedy
1 March 2015

Movie and show review

Gioia Kennedy

Nuclear Nation II

★★★★★

Links

TwitterFacebookWebsite

Nuclear Nation II is director, writer, and producer Atsushi Funahashi’s second documentary about the Fukushima refugees and his fifth feature-length film. Funahashi forces viewers to confront the residents of the Futaba region, who have been displaced from their homes due to the nuclear accident of March 11, 2011. Most nations around the world have forgotten about the disaster, but it’s especially disturbing to see Japan do the same. The government only offers its “sincere apologies” to the lost community. The film questions the validity of capitalism and central government, pointing out where bureaucracy fails due to red tape and assumed corruption during a time of crisis.

It begins with the New Year’s sombre celebrations of 2012. As the film continues, it marks the passage of time with the coming seasons, but each New Year acts as a reminder that fresh beginnings are impossible for those who have lost their homes.

The film sympathises with Futaba’s mayor during the crisis as he tries to help his community, but points out the failure of the government to provide aid to its people. In the beginning, a man from the affected region yells at his councilmen for their poor representation. He seems a bit too irate, but as the film progresses his angry sentiments gain potency. At the 2013 annual convention of the Japan Council of Municipalities with Atomic Power Stations, power plants and energy companies ask to forget about the crisis which happened two years ago, even while refugees still inhabit the Kisai High School.

Funahashi sheds light on the refugees, making their voices heard when their representatives refuse to listen. To the Japanese government, Futaba and its (now former) residents represent collateral damage of fueling a nation. The film shows there is little humanity to the government, despite it being run by real-life people. Prospects of compensation become dimmer and dimmer despite the mayors’ best efforts.

The complexity of the situation is not lost on Funahashi – what are you supposed to think when your livelihood, and prosperity of your community, has depended on the plant which has now caused you to lose everything? Funahashi would say this irony doesn’t matter when dealing with human lives in need of basic living conditions. Does his opinion matter when the government doesn’t share this sentiment? Nuclear Nation II offers a fatalist narrative but considering the film’s denouement, it seems warranted. Watch the movie and find solace in hearing Futaba’s residents’ outcries, but don’t expect to leave the experience at ease.

★★★★★

Gioia Kennedy

Nuclear Nation II does not yet have a UK release date.

Read more of our reviews and interviews from the festival here.

For further information about Berlin Film Festival 2015 visit here.

Watch the trailer for Nuclear Nation II here:

Related Itemsberlin film festival 2015berlinale 2015review

More in Berlinale

A Little Love Package

★★★★★
Oliver Johnston
Read More

Sonne

★★★★★
Selina Sondermann
Read More

Gangubai Kathiawadi

★★★★★
Selina Sondermann
Read More

“I was always trying to find this equilibrium between improvising and following the script”: Carla Simón on Golden Bear-winning Alcarràs

Sarah Bradbury
Read More

A E I O U – A Quick Alphabet of Love: An interview with Nicolette Krebitz

Selina Sondermann
Read More

Berlinale 2022: Awards predictions and highlights from the festival

Selina Sondermann
Read More

Concerned Citizen

★★★★★
Oliver Johnston
Read More

So-seol-ga-ui yeong-hwa (The Novelist’s Film)

★★★★★
Selina Sondermann
Read More

Rimini: An interview with director Ulrich Seidl

Selina Sondermann
Read More
Scroll for more
Tap

Movie and show review

Gioia Kennedy

Nuclear Nation II

★★★★★

Links

TwitterFacebookWebsite

  • Popular

  • Latest

  • TOP PICKS

  • Camden Fringe 2022: Rome 3000 (Julius Caesar) at Canal Cafe Theatre
    ★★★★★
    Theatre
  • Midsummer Mechanicals at Sam Wanamaker Playhouse
    ★★★★★
    Theatre
  • Luck
    ★★★★★
    Movie review
  • “The show makes you question, think about things and look into yourself. It speaks to you”: Tom Sturridge and Vivienne Acheampong on The Sandman
    Cinema & Tv
  • “Theatre is totally unique… there’s simply nothing else quite like it”: An interview with Sir Howard Panter as the new cast of Jersey Boys opens at Trafalgar Theatre
    Theatre
  • Jersey Boys bring on a new cast at Trafalgar Theatre
    Theatre
  • All of Us at the National Theatre
    ★★★★★
    Theatre
  • The Sandman
    ★★★★★
    netflix
  • Midsummer Mechanicals at Sam Wanamaker Playhouse
    ★★★★★
    Theatre
  • Jersey Boys bring on a new cast at Trafalgar Theatre
    Theatre
  • Luck
    ★★★★★
    Movie review
  • South Facing Festival: Jungle bring their signature neo-funk to Saturday night
    ★★★★★
    Live music
  • “Everything that’s happened to me has brought me here”: David Leitch on Bullet Train and working with Brad Pitt
    Cinema & Tv
  • The Tempest at Shakespeare’s Globe
    ★★★★★
    Theatre
The Upcoming
Pages
  • Contact us
  • Join mailing list
  • Join us
  • Our London food map
  • Our writers
  • Support us
  • What, when, why
With the support from:
International driving license

Copyright © 2011-2020 FL Media

Under Electric Clouds: An interview with director Aleksey German Jr
Berlin Film Festival 2015: Under Electric Clouds | Review