Woman in the Dunes

The Center for Remembering and Sharing presents Woman in the Dunes, written by Kôbô Abe and directed by Hiroshi Teshigahara. The cast features Eiji Okada and Kyôko Kishida.

One of the most sensual and erotic masterpieces of world cinema, Woman in the Dunes is nonetheless an extremely philosophical film inspired by the writings of Sartre and Beckett. An amateur entomologist searching for insects by the sea is trapped by local villagers into living with a mysterious woman who spends almost all her time preventing her home from being swallowed up by advancing sand dunes. Teshigahara’s second film, The Woman in the Dunes (1964) was highly avant-guard and earned an Academy Award nomination as well as a Special Judge’s Prize at the Cannes Film Festival, and is still considered avant-guard today. Similar to Beckett’s Happy Days, the film forces one to consider what it is that makes life worthwhile.