Zero

In his ninth observation film, Kazuhiro Sôda returns to the clinic of Dr. Yamamoto, whose psychiatric practice he previously observed in Mental (2008). This time, it is not the dynamics of the hospital space that is the main axis of the story, nor the patients and their problems, but the figure of the acclaimed doctor, whom we find at the moment of retirement. Yamamoto is a legendary figure in the world of Japanese psychiatry; for many he is a savior and perpetrator of a substitute for normality.  That’s why his departure is formative for the local community that Sôda has been watching for years (e.g., in the Inland Sea). The camera freezes in everyday life, subtly entering privacy. The director respects Yamamoto's surroundings, making his film a portrait of both friendship and ephemerality, which is clearly marked by the doctor's relationship with his wife - her days slowly disappearing into the fog of Alzheimer's oblivion. For Sôda Zero becomes a methodological beginning, a starting point, because he begins to observe himself for the first time.