Featuring critically-acclaimed films and festival favourites, Releases is dedicated to screening the best and most promising of contemporary Asian cinema.
Julien Faraut’s return to the sporting arena sees a hypnotising new documentary profile on Japan’s most famous women’s volleyball team—a cast of former textile workers who boast a spellbinding consecutive 258 wins in all their matches.
Original Title: Les Sorcières de l’Orient
Directed by: Julien Faraut
Runtime: 100 minutes
Country: France
Language: Japanese, Russian, French, with English subtitles
Rating: PG
Showtimes
Sunday, 11 July 2021, 5pm
Friday, 16 July 2021, 8pm
Sunday, 25 July 2021, 5pm
Oldham Theatre’s opening hours
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Full Synopsis
Dubbed ‘The Witches of the Orient’, the Japanese women’s volleyball team that won gold at the 1964 Tokyo Olympics boasts a spellbinding total of 258 consecutive wins – a record that remains unbeaten to this day. Julien Faraut’s slick and incisive documentary looks at the women now – still thriving in their seventies – while expertly weaving archival footage of their training sessions and matches, alongside colourful sequences of the anime shows that followed in the wake of their glory. With Tokyo 2020 Games, happening in July, Faraut’s fresh release is a timely deep dive into the legacy of an unforgettable team in Japan’s sporting history.
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