FAMILY, MIGRATION, LAND, POLITICS
After living in a Rohingya refugee camp in Bangladesh, four-year-old Shafi and his nine-year-old sister Somira embark on a perilous journey to Malaysia with a group of fellow Rohingya in the hope of reuniting with their scattered family. They spend seemingly endless days on an overcrowded smugglers’ boat until an incident at sea leaves them alone—and lost—in Thailand. But the kindness of the people they meet along the way, and their own indomitable spirit, reveal to them that they are never alone in the world, no matter how far from home.
Venice International Film Festival 2025 | Winner: Special Orizzonti Jury Prize
Akio Fujimoto (Writer / Director / Editor) is a Japanese filmmaker known for his intimate, socially engaged cinema. Born in Osaka in 1988, he trained in film at the city’s Visual Arts Academy. His debut feature, Passage of Life (2017), a Japan-Myanmar co-production, received international acclaim, winning the Best Feature and the Spirit of Asia Best Director awards of the Asian Future section at the Tokyo International Film Festival. He continued exploring migration and identity in Along the Sea (2020), presented at the San Sebastián Film Festival. Drawing on personal and cultural experiences, his work blends fiction and documentary with a restrained, humanistic approach, often focusing on the lives of those at the margins.
