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The Wind Rises (Kaze Tachinu)

Opening Night

Synopsis

Special Screening - Focus on Anime

The Ajyal Youth Film Festival is thrilled to have this inspiring and dreamlike film open our inaugural edition.

Hayao Miyazaki’s ‘The Wind Rises’ is inspired by the life of Jiro Horikoshi, the celebrated designer of the beautiful and famed Japanese Zero fighter – as well as the filmmaker's own fascination with aviation. As a young boy, Jiro dreams of planes that could only be brought to life in the kind of magical world for which Miyazaki is known and so fervently loved.

Jiro pursues his goal of building the greatest possible flying machine with astonishing success, but there is a tragedy to the realisation of his dream: watching his magnificent planes fly over the horizon, he realises most of them will never return. In parallel with this poignant tale of determination, Jiro takes strength from his undying passion for Naoko, the love of his life.

The master of anime has announced that this is to be the last of his feature-length films. There is no question that the auteur is ending a long and illustrious career with a film that is on par with the very best of his body of work.

Official Film Website

About the Directors

Hayao Miyazaki was born in Tokyo in 1941. He directed his first feature film in 1979. His lengthy career in animation includes the films ‘Laputa: Castle in the Sky’ (1986), ‘Princess Mononoke’ (1997) and ‘Spirited Away’ (2001), an international phenomenon that broke every Japanese box-office record, won the Golden Bear at the Berlinale and received an Oscar in 2003.

Credits

Director

Hayao Miyazaki

Screenwriter

Hayao Miyazaki

Producer

Nobou Kawakami , Toshio Suzuki

Music

Joe Hisaishi

Production Company

Studio Ghibli

Cast

Hideaki Anno, Jun Kunimura, Mirai Shida, Miori Shida, Keiko Takeshita, Mansai Nomura, Morio Kazama, Steve Alpert

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