AZTARNAK: Sanrizuka: Heta Buraku-no Hitobito / Sanrizuka: The Peasants of the Second Fortress (Ogawa Productions, 1971)

Sanrizuka: Heta Buraku-no Hitobito (Ogawa Productions, 1971)

Postwar Japan is immersed in a process of forced modernization. In 1966, plans were announced for the construction of Tokyo's new international airport, 60 kilometers from the city, in Sanrizuka. The government's forced displacement of peasant farmers would spark one of the largest social movements in Japanese modernity. From the heart of the resistance, the Ogawa Productions collective filmed seven movies between 1968 and 1977 about the defense of the farmers' land. In 1971, the fourth film in the series was made: Sanrizuka: The Peasants of the Second Fortress.

The violence intensifies: nature is destroyed and the farmers are crushed. Trenches, towers, barricades and tunnels are built to defend the land against the advance of the excavators and the police forces. From the transmission tower, the voice carries across the fields: "Sanrizuka lives: there is no doubt that shoots will rise from this earth in spring".

AZTARNAK is a program organized by the Film Curating Studies students of the 2025-2026 Academic Year at EQZE.