Onoda - 10 000 nuits dans la jungle d’Arthur Harari (Onoda: 10,000 Nights in the Jungle) © bathysphere
Onoda – 10,000 nuits dans la jungle (Onoda: 10,000 Nights in the Jungle), as seen by Arthur Harari
The 2021 edition of Un Certain Regard opens with a little-known story hidden within history. In 1944 Japan, with the end of the war approaching, Lieutenant Onoda is sent to an island in the Philippines under orders to never surrender. After he arrives, his comrades die, and he is completely unaware that his country has surrendered, so he continues to fight a phantom war for thirty years, equivalent to ten thousand nights. Until reality catches up with him. This epic story and character inspired Arthur Harari to produce Onoda. Cannes discovered the director in 2019 alongside Justine Triet, with whom he cowrote Sibyl, four years after the success of his first feature film, Diamant noir (Dark Diamond) in 2015.
Tell us about the development of your film.
When I read ‘The Savage Detectives’ by Roberto Bolaño, I was fascinated by a certain chapter that mentioned, without naming him, a hero with extraordinary courage. I discovered that in the first Spanish edition of the book, which is no longer in print, there is an alternative version of this chapter where the hero’s first name is mentioned. And it all began from there.
What was the atmosphere like on set? Do you have any anecdotes?
For one fight scene, I made the actors feel, without directly saying it, that I wanted them to really fight. So that’s what they did, and then one of them had to go to hospital to check that everything was okay. I felt really bad, but the shot was great.
What can you tell us about the actors you worked with?
Their mixture of preparation, willingness, commitment, humility and acting ability is something I’ve never seen before. I have great affection and admiration for them.
What did you learn while making this film?
For me, time and stubborn determination are the key to everything.
What made you want to become a director? What have been your influences?
In 1990, our babysitter and friend Marianne Baur, who was like a big sister to us, took me and my brother Tom to see Warner Bros films starring Humphrey Bogart. We had the same feeling when we were watching the same thing together, I think it was because we were experiencing the end of childhood: we knew we were going to have to change the world and what we saw at that moment seemed to be the most beautiful world possible.
Do you have any upcoming projects?
Nothing is fixed yet… I’m torn between the need to talk about my country and the need not to talk about myself except through other people. I need to film my own time and France, without confining myself to it. In fact, with Onoda, I realised I’ve developed a taste for stories that are difficult or impossible to tell. I love this challenge, the adventure of finding a narrative, aesthetic and poetic approach for dizzying subjects. That’s the only thing I’m certain of at the moment.
