Director Māris Martinsons will begin shooting a Latvian-Estonian-Japanese feature length modern-day fairytale, ‘Magic Kimono’ starring Kaori Momoi in August 2015.
Magic Kimono is a story of a Japanese woman’s rediscovery of her heart and long lost self via tragicomic encounters through the art of the kimono and the meeting of Japanese and European food culture. Keiko, a Japanese woman in her 60’s, joins a group of other Japanese women traveling to Northern Europe to participate in kimono show. During her performance in beautiful art nouveau Riga, she suddenly comes face-to-face with her husband who disappeared twenty years ago, and the two break into an argument. She decides to stay and establish a Japanese restaurant in Riga, but the locals have a very peculiar understanding of Japanese food and culture. In the midst of despair, Keiko meets a young chef and they develop a connection with food becoming a language bridging the different cultures of Japan and Europe.The film is being made on an estimated 1.4m EUR budget with shooting to start on 15 August 2015 and the premiere set for spring 2016. The estimated length of the film will be 100 minutes.
The film is a coproduction between ‘Krukfilms’ in Latvia, ‘OREE Films‘ in Estonia, and ‘Loaded’ in Japan.
The development has been supported by Boris and Inara Teterev Foundation, Live Riga, the National Film Centre of Latvia, the Riga City Council and the State Cultural Capital Foundation. Production is supported by the Riga Film Fund, Agency for Cultural Affairs (Bunkacho) in Japan and Daiwa House. The producers are still working on finding support for the production of the feature.
In foreign press:
”Magic Kimono’ Secures Cast, Financing’, Screen Daily, Liz Shackleton
‘First Japan-Baltics Co-Pro Announced’, Screen Daily, Liz Shackleton
Production Information:
Krukfilms
Kalnciema 1A-11
Riga, LV 1048, Latvia
Phone: +371 220 51060 (Latvia), +370 687 13375 (Lithuania)
E-mail: info@krukfilms.com
Oree Films (Estonia)
+372 5165242,
stensaluveer@gmail.com
Credits:
Director Māris Martinsons
Script Māris Martinsons
Cinematographer Gints Bērziņš
Producers Linda Krukle (Latvia), Sten-Kristian Saluveer (Estonia), Eiko Mizuno Gray and Jason Gray (Japan)