A young woman’s solitary trek through a disaster-stricken countryside evolves into a profound and unsettling exploration of self-discovery in a striking new film.
Itto, heavily pregnant, lives a life of gilded constraint within the lavish home of her wealthy husband and his family. Hailing from a humble background, she endures the quiet condescension of her in-laws, a stranger in a palace. Her fragile existence is shattered when a sudden, catastrophic flood isolates the region, prompting a military response.
Left alone, Itto arranges transport to reunite with her stranded husband, only to be abandoned in a remote village. What begins as a physical ordeal transforms as the environment itself turns uncanny. The sky cracks with unnatural light, and the animal world grows agitated and hostile. The villagers she encounters are either menacing or speak in cryptic, prophetic tones. In this atmosphere of growing strangeness, Itto’s vulnerability hardens into a fierce, primal resolve.
The film deftly shifts from a pointed social observation into a realm of eerie, metaphysical mystery. Itto’s fight for survival becomes a journey toward an unexpected and ambiguous liberation, one that suggests a deeper, spiritual connection to the forces unraveling the world around her. The result is an ambitious and haunting debut, less concerned with conventional narrative than with crafting a potent, atmospheric meditation on transformation and the unknown.