Films by Johannes Hiroshi Nakajima

Germany, Italy 2024, 90 min
by Andreas Pichler

Europe’s largest bear rewilding project was successful in resetlling brown bears in the Italian Alps. While most locals supported the conservation project in the beginning, fear and anger prevail after a series of attacks on humans. Interweaving breathtaking and rarely seen footage of wild bears and interviews with rangers and locals, the film taps into the heated debate over what the return of the bears means for rural communities. Can humans and bears truly coexist? How do we balance conservation with human safety?

Germany 2019, 106 min
by Julia Horn

Markus Becker is hit by a car and falls into a coma. The doctors don't believe the 45-year-old will survive the next five to ten days and his father begins making funeral arrangements. Markus' brother Michael refuses to accept this fate. With an unwavering perseverance, creative ideas and humour, Michael manages to get his brother out of the vegetative state. For ten years filmmaker Julia Horn accompanied the two brothers with sensitivity and persistence and was also there do document the moment, when Michael almost loses his own life due to exhaustion. Dear Brother is a love story, a film about what we are willing to do for love and a film about our idea of what it means to be human.