Desert of Namibia

21-year-old Kana (rising star Yuumi Kawai) works a disaffected job at a beauty salon, where she bristles against the beauty expectations placed on women her age. Her erratic mood and default to self-destruct impacts all of her relationships, as moments of levity erupt into violence and optimism simmers to despair. Bored with her slavish boyfriend, she finds another; the novel excitement of it all soon devolving into a volatile predicament. Uncommitted and trapped in her own life, Kana slowly makes her way towards the inner desert of her emotions. 

Alternating between claustrophobic blocking, ample zooms and expressive whip-pans brought together by dryly comedic editing and an intense actor’s direction, the sophomore effort from director Yoko Yamanaka (the youngest filmmaker to have a film selected at the Berlin International Film Festival with her 2017 debut Amiko) provides a frank and dynamic examination of womanhood and mental health in contemporary Japan. Inspired by the female protagonists of Yasuzo Masumura as much as the intense Cassavetes/Rowlands collaboration, Yamanaka breaks out with a work of stark confrontational honesty.

“Yoko Yamanaka's Desert of Namibia is profoundly affecting; imbued with a calm, introverted cruelty; like a girl without a home standing on any Tokyo street corner saying to the world, ‘I don't understand!’” – Lou Ye (Suzhou River)

"Yamanaka’s film defies cliché by depicting an unpleasant side of girlhood that many would prefer to deny exists." - Ariana King, Far-Near

"With Desert of Namibia, Yoko Yamanaka creates a heroine for our thoroughly addled times." Lisa Wong Macabasco, Vogue

"Desert of Namibia is a somewhat unclassifiable film, but it’s deeply felt, defiant, embodied – female." - Blake Simons, IndieWire