JAPANESE FILM WEEK 2017 Cinema Meeting Point Sarajevo February 24-28, 2017 FREE ENTRANCE! MAESTRO! – Friday, February 24 – 20:00h 2015 / Blu Ray / 129 min. Director: Shotaro Kobayashi Cast: Tori Matsuzaka, Miwa, Toshiyuki Nishida ''Music is like life, there for an instant and gone in a flash, But that instant, if it resonates, lasts for eternity...'' The Central Symphony Orchestra, a once-prominent group that went broke 6 months ago, is to reunite under a mysterious conductor Tendo, but its rehearsal space is an abandoned factory and the players are 'leftovers' who have not found positions anywhere else... A BAND RABBIT AND A BOY – Saturday, February 25 – 20:00h 2013 / Blu Ray / 97 min. Director: Takuji Suzuki Cast: Masaru Miyazaki, Arata Iura, Maho Yamada Katsuhisa Okuda is a shy, middle school student who likes to go home as soon as lessons finish every day. One day, he follows a mysterious rabbit who leads him to the school brass band, and he somehow joins the club. After some hesitation and worry, he gradually gets stuck into the joy of music. Then the day of the concert arrives...The original novel of the same title is written by Kei Nakazawa who is adored across generations. She portrayed the growing luster of middle school children at a sensitive age. HAVE A SONG ON YOUR LIPS – Sunday, February 26– 20:00h 2015 / Blu Ray / 132 min. Director: Taharo Miki Cast: Yui Aragaki, Yuri Tsunemasu, Shota Shimoda The Goto Island in Nagasaki Prefecture, Kyushu – blessed with blue seas and green woodland. A beautiful substite teacher arrives from Tokyo to teach the junior hihg school choir on a small island... A moving film that follows an emotionally wounded music teacher and her students on an isolated island as they put their troubles aside and invest energy into a choir contest. ABRAXAS – Monday, February 27– 20:00h 2010 / Blu Ray / 113 min. Director: Naoki Kato Cast: Suneohair, Rie Tomosaka, Kaoru Kobayashi ‘Abraxas’ means a primitive God defined as the power above all, the First Principle of all things including good and evil. It is also said that Abraxas is the origin of the mystic word ‘Abracadabra’. Jonen is a Zen monk who used to dream to become a rock musician. The film follows a Zen monk struggling to survive his difficult life through music, and the people around him who are healed by him in mysterious ways. The wisdom of Zen with which we can live our life through music accepting our self as it is, is sprinkled through the film. This film can be resonant with everyone who is tired of ‘looking for oneself’ in the present world. KEY OF LIFE – Tuesday, February 28– 20:00h 2012/ Blu Ray / 128 min. Director: Kenji Uchida Cast: Masato Sakai, Teruyuki Kagawa, Ryoko Hirouse Unemployed 35-year-old Sakurai aspired to become an actor, but has failed miserably. He decides to end it all by killing himself, but first he goes to ‘purify’ himself at a public bathhouse. At the bathhouse, he meets a very prosperous Kondo who suffers a fall which causes amnesia. On a whim, Sakurai switches locker keys, steals the man’s belongings and decides to pass himself off as the wealthy Kondo. But Sakurai does not know that Kondo runs an illegal business which brings him into contact with some mighty, annoyed yakuza gangsters… FILMS ARE SHOWN WITH ENGLISH SUBTITLES .