Radiance director Naomi Kawase will shoot her new film VISION with globetrotting star Juliette Binoche, reports Variety. Production will begin in September and resume in November.
Binoche will star as Jeanne, a journalist who is tracking a herb that only appears every 997 years. It will also reteam the director with Masatoshi Nagase, who was also in Kawase’s An (Sweet Bean) and Radiance, but is most recognisable internationally from Jim Jarmusch’s Mystery Train and Paterson. He stars as a mystery mountain man who, according to the source, “connects to her despite barriers or language and culture.”
According to Screen Daily, Boniche and Kawase met at Cannes this year and immediately clicked. “To me, the character being a foreigner actually doesn’t affect the story so much. Nara is my place. I live here and it’s where I weave my stories.”
Kawase is, of course, referring to shooting in her native Nara Prefecture, which will showcase the surrounding forests and Yoshino Mountains. If you’ve ever been to the region, you’ll know that it is a perfect locale for Kawase’s typical themes of life, death, and existentialism.
Wild Bunch will be responsible for the international sales and Haut et Court has already pre-bought French rights.
Photo credit: Screen Daily
