The Mena premiere of The Wind Rises, the critically-acclaimed anime film by renowned filmmaker Hayao Miyazaki, will usher in the inaugural Ajyal Youth Film Festival presented by Doha Film Institute (DFI).
The festival will be held from November 26 to 30 at Katara.
Raising the curtain on DFI’s platform aimed at bringing audiences of all ages together to discuss and appreciate cinema, The Wind Rises will also serve as a tribute to the art and culture of the Japanese art form, anime, which is followed widely by youth in the Middle East.
Written and directed by Miyazaki, The Wind Rises draws inspiration from a short story written by mid-20th century poet, writer and translator Tatsuo Hori, which fictionalises the life of the designer of the Mitsubishi A5M fighter aircraft and its successor, the Mitsubishi A6M Zero, both of which were used for battle in World War II.
Fatma al-Remaihi, the festival director, said: “Promising a showcase of international films, the inaugural Ajyal Youth Film Festival pays tribute to one of the world’s most followed art forms. Anime is extremely popular with youth in the Middle East and our opening night film celebrates the final work of legendary filmmaker Miyazaki. It’s very exciting for us to have a film screen at the launch of our new festival from such a prolific filmmaker. The Wind Rises is billed as one of the most critically-acclaimed anime films of this generation.”
Starring Japanese animator and film director Hideaki Anno, Japanese actress and former musical performer Miori Takimoto, actor Hidetoshi Nishijima and theatre and film actor Masahiko Nishimura, among others, The Wind Rises depicts the story of Jiro Horikoshi, a young boy living in a provincial town.
When Jiro wakes up to a dream about flying like an airplane from the top of his room, which is then destroyed by a large ship that emerges from the clouds, he is convinced that he was born to create one of the world’s greatest flying machines. Upon borrowing an English-language aviation magazine and a dictionary from a friend, Jiro works his
way up to become an engineer and begins working at an airplane manufacturer.
With a career spanning over 50 years as a director, an animator, a manga artist, producer and screenwriter, Miyazaki has attained international acclaim as a maker of anime feature films. He began his animation career in 1961 and has directed 20 features, including Howl’s Moving Castle, My Neighbour Totoro, Princess Mononoke and Castle in the Sky, among others.
The tribute to anime also includes Lupin the Third: The Castle of Cagliostro (1979) by Miyazaki, Horus: Prince of the Sun (1968) by Isao Takahata, Panda and the Magic Serpent (1958) by Taiji Yabushita and Kazuhiko Okabe and, finally, Garden of Words (2013) and Voices of a Distant Star (2003) by Makoto Shinkai.
The screenings will be complemented by an array of community-wide activities, including “Otaku Exhibition”, which celebrates the works of local and regional artistes paying tribute to the anime culture.
For more details, visit www.dohafilminstitute.com
Stills from The Wind Rises, directed by Hayao Miyazaki.
