Eve Gabereau’s Modern Films has acquired UK and Irish rights to Venice Competition title Evil Does Not Exist, the latest feature from Oscar-winning Japanese director Ryusuke Hamaguchi.
Evil Does Not Exist, which is sold by Berlin-based M-Appeal, is the story of Takumi and his daughter Hana who live quietly in Mizubiki Village, close to Tokyo. One day, the village inhabitants become aware of a plan to build a glamping site near Takumi’s house, which offers city residents a comfortable ‘escape’ to nature. It soon becomes clear that the project will cause turbulence in Takumi’s life.
Hamaguchi’s Drive My Car premiered in Cannes Competition in 2021 and went on to win the Academy Award for best international feature film.
Evil Does Not Exist has also been sold to September Film Distribution for Benelux, Leopardo Filmes for Portugal, and Andrews Film for Taiwan. M-Appeal had already sealed deals for the film in France (Diaphana), Italy (Tucker and Teodora will collaborate on the release) and Spain (Caramel Films).
The “origin story” of Evil Does Not Exist is an artistic collaboration between Ryusuke Hamaguchi and musician and composer Eiko Ishibashi. This has resulted in two new works: a live score film performance titled Gift, led by Ishibashi, and the new feature from Hamaguchi, for which Ishibashi has written the score.
For Gift, Ishibashi will be performing with multiple instruments, electronics, and recordings live on stage with a film (based on the same source material as Evil Does Not Exist, but shorter and silent, with word cards) projected behind her. Gift will only exist as a live score film performance, which will world premiere at Film Fest Gent on October 18 before being performed at further film and music festivals – no film version will be distributed.
Hamaguchi said: “In this film, I had a wonderful opportunity to work with Drive My Car’s composer Eiko Ishibashi again. The film project began when she asked me to create some footage for her live performance Gift and I conceived of the film, as an “original source material” for the footage.
“As I was working on the footage for Eiko’s performance, I became more and more connected to this film we were creating. I developed the narrative and the characters further. Eiko and her friends helped me a lot in the shooting, too. After the shoot, I felt that I had captured interactions of people in nature, and completed the work as a single film, Evil Does Not Exist, with Eiko Ishibashi’s beautiful theme music.”
Maren Kroyman, managing director of M-Appeal said: “The two distinct formats that have resulted from this collaboration complement each other in a unique way, and will make the release of this film very memorable. We love the origin story of this collaboration and are very happy to be part of bringing the film Evil Does Not Exist to cinema audiences worldwide.”
Evil Does Not Exist will be the third Hamaguchi movie which Modern Films has released in the UK and Ireland, following on from Drive My Car and Wheel Of Fortune And Fantasy (2021).
“I am so happy to be continuing to work with M-Appeal and honoured to be part of Evil Does Not Exist with Hamaguchi and his team. We are excited to grow the audiences for his film now that he is an established auteur who anticipates great excitement. This film delves into issues that concern us all, from the very personal and local to the political and global – in a quiet yet intense way,” said Modern Films managing director Gabereau.
Modern Films’ upcoming titles Babak Jalali’s Fremont, which co-stars Jeremy Allen White from The Bear and will close Edinburgh International Film Festival, Carol Morley’s Typist Artist Pirate King, and Paul Sng’s TIsh, which opened Sheffield DocFest in June.
No comments yet