The Witches of the Orient

(Les Sorcières de l’Orient, Julien Faraut, France, 2021)

Julien Faraut, across only a handful of works including John McEnroe: In the Realm of Perfection (2018), has proved himself to be the master of a new kind of sports film: more essay than straight documentary, eager to take bold creative risks, and entrusting almost everything (in the style of his idol, Chris Marker) to the power of audiovisual montage.

Faraut’s subject in The Witches of the Orient is inherently fascinating: the dazzling career of the Japanese women’s volleyball team that fought its way to Olympic victory in 1964.

Underlying issues of gender and of international political relations in that era are deftly raised and handled. Archival footage of the almost brutal training process (led by the enigmatic and dictatorial coach, Hirobumi Daimatsu) is compelling, and the contemporary discussion between surviving players is charming and poignant.

Faraut’s ace card, however, is the popular cartoon version from the 1960s of the team and its on-court triumphs – which opens the door to an exuberant ‘re-enactment’ of matches in a manga/anime style, edited to an intense musical accompaniment.

The result cleverly mixes artifice and cultural mythology with immediacy and excitement.

© Adrian Martin October 2021