AUN - the beginning and the end of all things

Tokyo / Vienna 2011 102 min.

The film is available here.

‘AUN – the beginning and the end of all things’ tells the story of mankind’s quest for the future, his desire to create the tomorrow, his fear of and loathing for the apocalypse. It spins the Faustian theme twice and lays bare open the inexhaustible Judea/Christian believe in progress, which by the 21st century has taken over the entire world and has succeeded in maneuvering the globe into a situation that can’t be solved by means of economics or science anymore. Enlightenment’s merits have taken the West’s ability to sense what is not to be seen, what is only to be felt. Believes are so much more than religion, than monotheistic concepts. Souls and spirits exist not only in film. Denial and neglect of nature’s eternal laws lead to extinction – of the individual and the entire human race. AUN invents rituals as well as mythologies and worships the creator of it all – nature – by playfully laying out its dichotomy with human culture. The film equals mankind’s beauty with nature by announcing that ‘everything mankind creates is nature’.

‘AUN follows the strings of thoughts the late Claude Lévi-Strauss revealed in his anthropological essays throughout the 20th century, as well as those of Japan’s unique Shintoism who’s millions of gods inhibit and preserve nature. The film focuses on the dichotomy man/nature and envisions a future world where life will be nothing but sensual. It contains references to Brazilian writer Clarice Lispector, Italian anthropologist Fosco Maraini and the Japanese writer Yoko Tawada.

cast: Hiyori Yuki, Rosanne Mulholland, Saito Yosuke, William Ferreira, Tenji Kamogawa, Komoto Kyoichi, Yukika Kudo, Kazuto Taguchi, Yoshimito Daisuke, Makiko Kawai, Kaoru Noguchi, Naoko Tomozoe, Mutsumida Hayashi, Eriko Tomioka, Misa Akechi, Keiko Ejima, Kunihiko Hasegawa, Kondo Yoko, Nobuhiro Ishihara, Rika Asakaze, Natsu Maruyama, Eiji Ohki, Sou Mizuki, Chan Hou Chun
camera: Hisaki Sanbongi, Hiroyuki Mizuno
gaffer: Masaaki Katou
production designers: Takeuchi Etsuko, Yasuhi Ohono sound: Aonuma Nobuyuki editors: Tomoko Hiruta, Seiji Harimoto, Harald Aue executive producers: Yukika Kudo, Gabriele Kranzelbinder producers: Yukika Kudo, Edgar Honetschläger written by: Edgar Honetschläger, Reinhard Jud
director: Edgar Honetschläger
music consultant: Mike Harding
score by: Christian Fennesz and Ryuichi Sakamoto
production company: Edoko Institute Film Production Vienna