NIPO BRASIL

An explosive mixture: sushi, sumo and salsa! Japan in the middle of Brazil! The largest Japanese immigrant community today is in Brazil, where five generations of exiled Japanese reside. Fleeing from Japan's economic crisis, they've been travelling there since the beginning of the 20^th century. 93-year-old Luis Senzo Naka was 17 when he left his home town Okinawa to look for a job on the other side of the world in a country and culture which couldn't be more different to his. Landlord of a bar in Sao Paulo, he pretty much remained within the Japanese ex-pat community. His son Juaquim grew up in between the two cultures and married an Afro-Brazilian woman. While Juaquim’s wife turned towards Japanese culture under the influence of her step-mother, he raised his children as Brazilians.

Today, however, many of the immigrants' grandchildren undertake the reverse journey voyaging to the country of their ancestors to look for a job. Like their grandparents before them, the young Nipo-Brazilians hardly know anything about the culture and language of their new home. This film offers us encounters with three generations of immigrants living in between two cultures, with a mixture of Japanese manners and Brazilian mentality, and a reflection on multiculturalism and hybrid identities in a globalised world.