Cinefrance launches sales on Naomi Kawase’s Locarno premiere ‘Yakushima’s Illusion’ starring Vicky Krieps

EXCLUSIVE: Cinefrance International, the global sales arm of Paris-based Cinefrance Studios, will kick off sales for Naomi Kawase’s Yakushima’s Illusion starring Vicky Krieps at Locarno Film Festival where it will premiere in competition. Ad Vitam will release the film in France.

Krieps plays a French coordinator of paediatric heart transplants who is sent to Japan, where she fights to save the life of a youthful child just as the man she loves suddenly vanishes.

Cinefrance Studios produced the film alongside Kawase for Japan’s Kumie Inc. Co-producers are Belgium’s Tarantula, Luxembourg’s Viktoria Productions, and France’s Prod Lab and Marignan Films.

The film shot for eight weeks in Japan on the titular Yakushima Island and in Kawase’s native Nara, as well as a few days in Paris. Rising Japanese actor Kanichiro also stars. 

Kawase explains that in Japan, “Over 80,000 [people] go missing yearly, and organ donors are few. Through a foreign medical professional’s eyes, this story weaves time and space to reveal post-pandemic shifts in human connection and Japan’s lasting views on life and death passed to future generations.”

Yakushima’s Illusion is Kawase’s first feature since 2020 adoption drama True Mothers, which played in competition at Cannes. She also directed the official film of the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games.

Kawase was the youngest winner of Cannes’ Camera d’Or for her 1997 debut feature Suzaku before going on to premiere several films in competition at the festival, including Shara, The Mourning Forest, Hanezu and Still The Water.

Other upcoming projects for Krieps include Jim Jarmusch’s Venice premiere Father Mother Sister Brother, Marie Kreutzer’s Gentle Monster, Malgorzata Szumowska and Michal Englert’s The Idiots, and Ryan Murphy’s Monster for Netflix.

Cinefrance Studios, founded in 2018 by David Gauquié and Julien Deris, is also behind Ryusuke Hamaguchi’s All Of A Sudden starring Virginie Efira, which is currently shooting in Paris, and Celine Salette’s Niki which premiered at Cannes in 2024.

Renan Artukmaç, producer and head of sales at CInefrance, said: “Yakushima’s Illusion is a profoundly moving and powerful film that showcases Naomi Kawase’s signature sensitivity and visual elegance, set against the breathtaking backdrop of Japan’s Yakushima Island and Nara.”

Gregory Gajos, head of acquisitions and production at Ad Vitam, added: “It is truly powerful how the director weaves together Japanese and Western cultures in her storytelling. This film is one of the most emotional and impactful works we’ve had the chance to handle in recent years.”