Private Project

My Small Land

For Sarya (17), a Kurdish refugee girl in Japan, life seems to be looking up; her grades at school are enough to pursue college, she’s surrounded with good friends and her relationship with Sota is becoming special. Sarya’s life becomes upside down, however, when she learns that her family’s refugee status is turned down, restricting her family of work and traveling across the city. Her father, who had continued to work to sustain a living, is taken into custody for illegal employment. Sarya is now suddenly forced into a situation where she is responsible not only for her younger siblings but for her very existence.

  • Emma Kawawada
    Director
  • Emma Kawawada
    Writer
  • Hiromi Morishige
    Producer
  • Megumi Banse
    Producer
  • Hidetoshi Shinomiya
    Cinematography
  • Daiken Okudaira
    Key Cast
    "Sota"
  • Lina Arashi
    Key Cast
    "Sarya"
  • Takashi Fujii
    Key Cast
    "Ota Takeshi"
  • Chizuru Ikewaki
    Key Cast
    "Zakiyama Noriko"
  • Project Type:
    Feature
  • Runtime:
    1 hour 55 minutes
  • Country of Origin:
    Japan
  • Language:
    Japanese, Kurdish, Turkish
  • Film Color:
    Color
  • First-time Filmmaker:
    No
  • Student Project:
    No
Director Biography - Emma Kawawada

KAWAWADA Emma was born on October 15, 1991 in Ibaraki, Japan. She graduated from Waseda University where she studied theater and film arts in the School of Humanities and Social Sciences. Feature-length film “Circle”, which she directed as a college student, was the grand prize runner-up at the Waseda Film Festival and the Tokyo Student Film Festival. She was a student juror at the 14th Tokyo Filmex. She joined production company BUN-BUKU, mainly led by KORE-EDA Hirokazu and NISHIKAWA Miwa, in November 2014 and was the assistant for Director KORE-EDA Hirokazu for The Third Murder and Director HIROSE Nanako for His Lost Name. She also directed several episodes of “Kyo-no, Akinai” between 2015 and 2016.

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