SUMMER LIGHTS
Directed by Jean-Gabriel Périot, 2016
SYNOPSIS
Akihiro, a native Japanese filmmaker living in Paris, returns to Hiroshima to interview survivors for a documentary commemorating the 70th anniversary of the atomic bombing. Deeply moved by their stories, he decides to take a break and wanders through the city. During his walk, he encounters Michiko, a cheerful and enigmatic young woman. She leads him on a spontaneous journey from the city to the sea, where the horrors of the past gently blend with the simplicity of the present. Through Michiko, Akihiro finds a way out of the shadow of tragedy and rediscovers the quiet, luminous beauty of life.
Technical Details
Technical Crew
Fiction - France - 2016
83' - HD - Colour - 1.85:1 - 5.1
Versions
Japanese version with French subtitles
Japanese version with English subtitles
Japanese version with Spanish subtitles
Directed by
Jean-Gabriel PERIOT
Written by
Jean-Gabriel PERIOT
Yoko HARANO
Photography
Denis GRAVOUIL
Editing
Jean-Gabriel PERIOT
Mona LANFANT
Sound
Dana FARZANEPHOUR
Ai MIYATAKE
Laure ARTO
Original score
Xavier THIBAULT
Production
Nicolas BREVIERE – Local Films
Distribution
Potemkine
International Sales
MPM Films
Partners
Région Île de France
CNC
Festivals
Festival de Pesaro - Audience Award
San Sebastian international film festival- Novos Cinemas / Pontevedra
Indielisboa / Lisbonnes
Pesaro film festival
Japan Cut / New York
Valdivia international film festival
Mar del Plata film festival
Hiroshima international film festival
Entrevues de Belfort
Festival de la Rochelle
Travelling / Rennes
Rencontres cinématographiques de Dignes-les-Bains
Festival du film de Cabourg
Press materials
Cast
Hiroto OGI
Akane TATSUKAWA
Yuzu HORIE
Keiji IZUMI
Mamako YONEYAMA
TRAILER
Jean-Gabriel Périot
Born in France in 1974, Jean-Gabriel Périot has made some twenty short films (montage, fiction, animation), developing a distinctive editing style often built on archive footage. His work recurrently questions violence and history. Short films such as “Even If She Had Been a Criminal…” (2006), “200,000 Phantoms” (2007) and “The Devil” (2012) have been selected and awarded at numerous international festivals.
In 2015, his first feature film, “A German Youth”, about the early years of the Red Army Faction, opened the Panorama section of the Berlin International Film Festival and went on to be selected and awarded at around a hundred festivals worldwide. It was followed by “Summer Lights” (2016), his first fiction film, shot in Japan around the memory of Hiroshima and premiered at the San Sebastián Film Festival, and “Our Defeats” (2019), presented in the Berlinale Forum, where it received the CICAE Art Cinema Award.
“Returning to Reims [Fragments]” (2021), based on Didier Eribon’s book and narrated by Adèle Haenel, premiered at the Directors’ Fortnight in Cannes and won the César Award for Best Documentary in 2023. He then directed “Facing Darkness” (2023), about the siege of Sarajevo, selected at Karlovy Vary, Sarajevo and IDFA among others, and “A Life, A Manifesto” (2026), a portrait of filmmaker and revolutionary activist Michèle Firk, presented at the Cannes Film Festival.