Survivor guilt is a common outcome of war, natural disasters or anything that produces victims and survivors linked by blood, friendship or other ties. Why did you die but not me? Why couldn't I save you? The questions gnaw, and outsiders have no real answers.
This guilt is a theme of Masakazu Sugita's minimalist elegiac debut feature, "Hitono Nozomino Yorokobiyo" ("Joy of Man's Desiring"), which premiered in the Generation section of the 2014 Berlin International Film Festival — a section intended for children and teenagers.
The film, which Sugita also scripted, was informed by his experiences as a 14-year-old in Kobe during the 1995 Great Hanshin Earthquake, in which more than 6,000 people died.