My Small Land depicting identity crisis in Japan

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My Small Land depicting identity crisis in Japan

My Small Land depicts Japanese society from the perspective of Sarya, a Kurdish high school student. c The 2022 My Small Land production committee Emma Kawawada, a filmmaker of mixed parentage, is celebrating the release of her first commercial film My Small Land, which mirrors an identity crisis that she and many foreign nationals have had in Japan.

She said that I was born and raised in Japan, but I have felt excluded and sought a place I can belong to. She said about the film that opened in theaters nationwide on May 6. Kawawada, 30, was born to a British father and a Japanese mother.

The film, set in Saitama Prefecture just north of Tokyo, revolves around Sarya, who arrived in Japan as a child with her Kurdish parents fleeing persecution in their homeland.

She works at a convenience store part time to raise money to go to university.

In one scene an elderly shopper speaks to Sarya at the counter after she noticed that Sarya's name tag is in katakana script, marking her out as non-Japanese.

The woman asks her. When will you return to your country? The exchange, perhaps intended to be good-natured, tears at the heart of Sarya, who converses easily in Japanese.

Sarya lives with her father as well as a younger brother and sister who were born in Japan. Her mother died during her childhood.

Her life changes dramatically when her father's application for refugee status is rejected, stripping the family of four of their immigration status.

Foreign nationals are not allowed to travel to other prefectures if they are provisionally released from detention at an immigration facility.

Lina Arashi, a fashion model with her roots in Japan, Germany, Iran, Iraq and Russia, made her film debut as Sarya.

I am still being asked which country are you from? She said that she had no trouble reading kanji characters, and handed a foreign-language menu at restaurants.

Arashi, 17, described the scene of the shopper praising Sarya's Japanese ability as illustrating the common dilemma I face. She said that I was able to act out the scene in a natural way.

Kawawada interviewed Kurdish and other foreign residents in Japan and weaved their stories of woe with her own experiences to write the screenplay.

Sarya is asked by her Japanese classmates which country she cheers for in the soccer world cup or Olympics. Hearing her say she will root for Japan, they ask her why.

Sarya uses a hair straightener every morning to make her hair appear more like her Japanese friends. She is innocently pushed into the foreign category because she is envied for her long eyelashes and told to take advantage of your non-Japanese looks. An estimated 2,000 Kurds live in and around the cities of Kawaguchi and Warabi in Saitama Prefecture, accounting for 80 percent of the Kurdish population in Japan. Many are said to have no immigration status.

When Kawawada asked Arashi what her nationality was, Arashi smiled and said: "I want to say I am a Japanese boy, but people around me don't see me that way." Her words marked a sharp contrast to her cheerful expression, which gave me confidence that she would be able to represent the unstable situation in which many Kurdish children find themselves, said Kawawada.

My Small Land premiered in the Gen section of the Berlin International Film Festival in February and received a special mention from the Amnesty International jury.