Desert of Namibia

Director Yoko Yamanaka in person

Dir. Yoko Yamanaka. 2024, 137 min. Japan. DCP. In Japanese with English subtitles. With Yuumi Kawai, Daichi Kaneko, Kanichiro, Yuzumi Shintani, Keisuke Horibe, Makiko Watanabe. Yoko Yamanaka’s second feature follows Kana (Kawai), a mercurial 21-year-old Japanese woman who vacillates among suitors, priorities, and moods. Does she want security or stimulation, adulthood or regression; is she just unpredictable or unwell? Kawai embodies Kana with a fierce volatility that Yamanaka tracks exhaustively and unreservedly, a tango that evokes nothing less than the hot-blooded, without-a-net cinema of Cassavetes and Rowlands. Charm erupts into violence, drama lists toward stasis, and comedy gets seriously existential. Like its protagonist, Desert of Namibia refuses categorization, as well as formal or tonal restrictions, compelling the viewer to take in the sum of Kana’s existence. New York premiere 

Tickets: $17.50 / $12 senior and students / $10 youth (ages 3–17) / free for MoMI members at the Senior/Student level and above. There is a $1.50 transaction fee per ticket for all online purchases. The cost of admission may be applied toward a same-day purchase of a membership. 

Order tickets. Please pick up tickets at the Museum’s admissions desk upon arrival. All seating is general admission. 

About the filmmaker:

Yoko Yamanaka (b. 1997) dropped out of Nihon University’s College of Art at the age of 19 and began work on her directorial debut, Amiko, Amiko (2018), winning multiple awards at the PIA Film Festival in 2017 before screening at the Berlinale in 2018. Her sophomore effort, Desert of Namibia, premiered at the Director’s Fortnight in 2024 where it won the FIPRESCI prize.