‘Takara’: A Child’s Snowy Dreamscape

Created by Damien Manivel and Kohei Igarashi, Takara, The Night I Swam is a Franco-Japanese film that recounts the story of a six-year-old child, Takara, who wants to show his father a drawing. The complication is, that his father is a fisherman who leaves for work in the morning far earlier than Takara wakes up for school.

With grit and determination, the young boy decides to skip school and visit his father and the fish market. The film follows his adventure, by foot, by train and by car, across the snowy backdrop of Aomori, demonstrating the innocence of a child in an adult world that sits just beyond his comprehension. In such a setting, words are absent, but the beauty of the landscape speaks volumes.