Review | Desert of Namibia movie review: Yuumi Kawai superb in intriguing portrait of Japan’s Gen Z
Yuumi Kawai plays an explosive young woman in this film directed by Yoko Yamanaka that looks at independence and assertive femininity
4/5 stars
Winner of the Fipresci prize at the Cannes Film Festival’s Directors Fortnight programme in 2024, Desert of Namibia serves up a potent cocktail of adolescent malaise and assertive femininity, and proves an eye-catching breakthrough for 28-year-old writer-director Yoko Yamanaka.
Her second feature film, after 2017’s Amiko, chronicles the trials and tribulations of 20-something Kana (Yuumi Kawai) as she searches for meaning in Tokyo’s chaotic urban sprawl.
By turns alluring and infuriating, Kana is a wildly unpredictable force of nature. When not sleepwalking through her job at a hair removal clinic, we observe her as she parties late into the night, drinks to excess and pinballs from one dissatisfying relationship to another.
Within moments of first appearing on screen, Kana receives the news that a former classmate has killed herself with little more than a shrug.