The Tale of Iya

2013, Tsuta Tetsuichiro, 169 minutes

A big city dropout, an ambitious town elder, his restless son, and a mountain-dwelling recluse are among the characters who populate Tsuta Tetsuichiro’s evocative epic The Tale of Iya. When a small Japanese town’s idyll is threatened by a massive infrastructure project—a mountain highway tunnel—the town’s residents are thrust into a crisis of identity as they search for respite from the endless clash between progress and tradition.