Abita. Children from Fukushima

Germany, 2012, 4 min, no dialogue
Animation
World Premiere

Animated short film about Fukushima children who can't play outside. About their dreams and realities.

Bachelor in 2012 of Shoko Hara and Paul Brenner

Sound design and Music: Lorenz Schimpf
Teachers: Prof. Klaus Birk, Alexander Hanowski, Martin Hesselmeier
DHBW Ravensburg, Studiengang Mediendesign

Director Paul Brenner present, Munich 2013

Best Animated Film 2013

The best Animated Film of Rio de Janeiro's Uranium Film Festival 2013 is, ABITA, a beautiful animated film directed and produced 2012 in Germany by Shoko Hara and Paul Brenner from the Duale Hochschule Baden-Württemberg in Ravensburg. This animated short film deals with the dreams of Fukushima children who can't play outside because of radioactive contamination. Brazilian Professor for animated film and festival judge Leo Ribeiro: "I selected Abita, because it is a very poetic and sensitive movie and very well done."

Shoko Hara, a student in Germany who was born in Okayama in the western part of Japan, wrote about the metaphor she used in the film. "We used Japanese symbolism in our film. The Dragonfly represents the Japanese island, because of its form. It also symbolizes hope, perspective, dream, energy in Japan and it unites all the natural elements like water, earth and air. These were destroyed with the Fukushima disaster, they don't have any perspectives for their future. Furthermore dragonflies in japan are carriers of fertility. The Dragonfly represents the inner world of the child, that it wants to be free in the nature, but it can't. Dragonfly is a popular symbol in japan and we often use it in arts, poems and in literature."