GAMA

GAMA was part of IDFA program in 2023, and withdrawn by the filmmaker. Upon the request of the filmmaker, we publish the following text as received:

"This film was one of 12 to withdraw from participation at IDFA 2023, amongst 28 total withdrawals that included moderators, jury, and others in protest at the festival's damaging denunciation of an action in solidarity with Palestine that took place on the opening night of the festival. At the time, the festival erased all information relating to the films withdrawn in protest from the website. In response to the publication of the Palestine Film Institute's 'Industry Protocol in Times of Genocide' in August 2024, and as a gesture towards transparency, IDFA reinstated the information relating to the withdrawn films in September 2024. No further accountability has been taken.”  - The Palestine Film Institute on behalf of the filmmakers, for the full statement click here

Film Synopsis

Toward the end of the Second World War, Okinawa was the scene of a bloody battle. The Japanese island is now green and serene, but on April 1, 1945, US troops landed to begin a battle that cost a horrific number of lives.

The dead also included many civilians who were hiding in caves, such as Chibichirigama, where 140 people had fled to escape the fighting. A day after the invasion, on April 2, 83 of them committed suicide. They had been wrongly told that if they surrendered they would be slaughtered or tortured by the Americans.

Narrator and guide Mitsuo Matsunaga’s account of their senseless suicide is delivered in a monotone voice, but is emotional nonetheless. Filmmaker Kaori Oda has placed him in the setting of the abandoned caves, where the memories of the violence originated, as a connector to the past. He is joined by a mysterious woman who listens and observes him like a ghost, as he sometimes literally unearths the traces of the suffering hidden in the underground landscape.