SATOSHI KON - THE ILLUSIONIST

The mangaka and anime filmmaker Satoshi Kon died suddenly in 2010, at the age of 46. He left behind a short and unfinished body of work, which is nevertheless among the most widely distributed and influential in the history of contemporary Japanese culture.

Ten years after his death, his family and collaborators finally speak out about his work, while his heirs in Japan, France and Hollywood look back on his artistic legacy.

Satoshi Kon, The Illusionist illustrates the trajectory of a solitary author, whose life was dedicated to comics and animation for adults.

Director Pascal-Alex Vincent (Give me your hand, Miwa: A Japanese Icon) went to meet those who knew Satoshi Kon or who worked with him, from Tokyo to Los Angeles, via Paris or London.
Generously illustrated with images of his films or rare archives, the documentary is a dive into the animation world of the 2000s, but also into the work of a filmmaker with a tragic fate, who became a cult director worldwide.
His colleagues and friends testify: Mamoru Oshii (Ghost in the Shell), Mamoru Hosoda (Wolf Children), but also the legendary Masao Maruyama, co-founder in 1971 of the Madhouse studio which produced Satoshi Kon’s films. As for foreign filmmakers (Darren Aronofsky, Requiem for a Dream; Jérémy Clapin, I Lost My Body), they will come to evoke the importance of Kon’s work internationally.