Cherry Blossoms - Hanami
The sudden death of his wife plunges a terminally ill man into profound grief. Realizing how little he knew her and how little he showed her his affection, he devotes his last weeks to fulfilling her long-cherished dreams.
Only Trudi knows that her husband Rudi is suffering from a terminal illness. It is up to her to tell him or not. The doctor suggests that they do something together, perhaps something they were long planning to do… Trudi decides not to tell her husband about the gravity of his illness and to follow the doctor´s advice. She convinces Rudi to visit their children and grandchildren in Berlin. But once they arrive, they realize that their children are so busy with their own lives that they have no time for them. Then, suddenly, Trudi dies. Rudi is devastated and has no idea what to do next. From his daughter´s girlfriend he learns that Trudi´s love for him had led her to forego the life that she had wanted to live. He begins to see her with new eyes and vows to make up for her lost life. And so he embarks on his last journey - to Tokyo, in the midst of the cherry blossom festival, a celebration of beauty, impermanence and new beginnings…
One of Germany´s foremost filmmakers ("Men," "Me and Him," "Am I Beautiful," "Enlightenment Guaranteed", "Naked"), multiple award-winning director Doris Dörrie reconfirms her exceptional talent with this tender, emotionally intense and profoundly moving story of marital love.
Director Doris Dörrie :
With this story I tried to investigate serious questions about life and death, love and loss in a lightfooted and hopefully lighthearted way: does impermanence teach us to see things the way they really are? Is it possible to enjoy the present moment in the face of death? What makes us blossom? What makes us wither? How can we water our seeds of joy? We tried to apply these questions not only to the story but also to our way of shooting. We tried to discover beauty in each moment and let it pervade the story. For all of us, this blend of reality and fiction was strangely exhilarating. It was as if the line between waking and dreaming had been blurred and it wasn’t quite clear where we were, but at all times we felt much closer to the essence - and I think this shows in the film.
|Doris Dörrie|
With this story I tried to investigate serious questions about life and death, love and loss in a lightfooted and hopefully lighthearted way: does impermanence teach us to see things the way they really are? Is it possible to enjoy the present moment in the face of death? What makes us blossom? What makes us wither? How can we water our seeds of joy? We tried to apply these questions not only to the story but also to our way of shooting. We tried to discover beauty in each moment and let it pervade the story. For all of us, this blend of reality and fiction was strangely exhilarating. It was as if the line between waking and dreaming had been blurred and it wasn’t quite clear where we were, but at all times we felt much closer to the essence - and I think this shows in the film.
|Doris Dörrie|
Jul 25th 2010