Masao Adachi Takes a Passport Photo

Masao Adachi (86) was not only a major filmmaker of the Japanese New Wave, but also a member of the notorious Japanese Red Army. During his years in Lebanon, he supported the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, a movement responsible for numerous attacks. After being arrested and deported back to Japan, Adachi’s passport was revoked.

Palestinian filmmaker and visual artist Kamal Aljafari (With Hasan in Gaza) begins this portrait as Adachi steps into the small Tokyo photo studio of widow Ikuyo Shida. He needs a passport photo for another attempt to get his passport back. Adachi alongside Shida, surrounded by nostalgic photographs and struggling with her printer: two very different lives meeting without preconceptions. What they share is a quiet determination.

Aljafari captures their encounter with understated elegance and an eye for detail. A shot of a pack of cigarettes, for instance, provides a telling and laconic final note.