The 2021 edition of Nippon Connection Film Festival in Frankfurt presents documentary film Ainu Neno An Ainu by Laura Liverani and Neo Sora as a world premiere.The film will be screening in the Nippon Docs section from June 1st to June 6th.
Ainu Neno An Ainu collects the stories of the Ainu, the indigenous population of northern Japan. The film is an interwoven set of stories narrated by Maya, a young Ainu girl who grew up in the Hokkaido village of Nibutani. Her voice guides the audience as other villagers tell their stories and portray the histories of their community, from their individual and collective journey of forced assimilation and discrimination to the revitalization of their own language and culture. A prominent member of the cast is the village of Nibutani which hosts a population that is over 70 percent of Ainu descent. The stories of Nibutani form an extended family album, revealing a tight-knit community deeply involved in both recovering and reinventing their Ainu heritage after a history of Japanese colonization.
