SAKU:
MEMORIES OF A
BLOOMING TOWN
September 2026

VIDEO CREDITS:
Director, Producer: Minami Nakamura, Josiah Iloh
DoP, Edit, Grade: Josiah Iloh

In Saku, a small town buried in the mountains of Nagano, two beekeepers and a sake brewer practise crafts that cannot be separated from the land and its seasons. Each left for Tokyo in early adulthood, and each eventually returned. Filmed in June, as spring gives way to summer, the film listens to them, and to their children who are only beginning to wonder whether they will stay or go.

In its stillness, the town becomes a place to reflect on what it means to belong. The film is a meditation on the longing for home and the quiet beauty of living closely with the land. It asks what success and purpose might mean when a life is built close to home, and what is passed down from one generation to the next.

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