THE BIRTH OF SAKÉ

In northern Japan, the small Tedorigawa brewery has been making its saké using the same artisanal methods for more than a century. From October to April, the workers, all men, live together at the brewery and work non-stop, even when mourning. Cooking the rice, stirring it by hand, overseeing its fermentation… it is a sacred ritual, conducted silently in a shroud of steam. The faces are focused. Everything is codified, part of a seemingly immutable tradition. There is a good reason saké is not “manufactured” but rather “born”: it is a beverage, but it is also history and culture. Far from the typical informational documentary (aside from a few lines of explanatory text), the film is all intense settings and tight shots. We slide into the realm of mysticism when the master brewer, drawing on 53 years of experience, watches over his rice like a worried father and advises his pupils to “rely on their intuition.” In this timeless world, everything is handed down the generations through oral tradition. Is it better to preserve the distinctive flavours of the past, or to cater to the modern consumer’s tastes? Cycles of work, cycles of life: this is a moving, aesthetically refined portrait.