SUSAN BIJL and the International Film Festival Rotterdam return with a fourth collaboration. This limited-edition shopping bag, in colours Clay & Greenscreen, features the iconic tiger, designed by 75B, in a flashy purple and bright red combination.
Available in small, medium and large—online, at our stores, from January 29th and the festival shop at De Doelen from January 30th (while stock lasts).
Our staff recommendations
As young film students, Susan and Vincent were devoted visitors and volunteers at IFFR. The festival has long held a special place in their hearts. That shared love of cinema lives on within the SUSAN BIJL team, for whom IFFR remains a true cultural highlight of Rotterdam. With our brand’s focus on Japan, it comes as no surprise that we’re especially curious about the Japanese films in IFFR’s programme. Each year, IFFR presents a rich selection of films from Japan, and we can’t wait to discover these titles.
There Was Such a Thing Before
In this quiet, enigmatic drama, Matsui Yoshihiko reflects on the toll of the 2011 Fukushima nuclear plant disaster in the lives of its townspeople. Time has passed since Akira lost his mother. Now, he sets off to find his father who works to decontaminate the region.
Tokyo Taxi
With the audience as his passengers, Yoji Yamada’s Tokyo Taxi takes us on a ride of reminiscence and realisation. Our guides are a cabbie and his 85-year-old customer, who helps reframe the troubled driver’s hardships through her own journey through the Japanese capital.
V-Cinema
Japan’s direct-to-video phenomenon V-Cinema emerged in the late 1980s and left a lasting mark in contemporary film culture. The V-Cinema production model responded to the rise of video rental, by producing films that were not released in cinemas. This approach allowed directors to work quickly, economically, and with remarkable creative freedom. This Focus programme features a selection of 18 films: a combination of early works by now-famous auteurs, through to discoveries that have rarely been seen outside Japan.
Here’s two films from the V-cinema programme that we would like to see:
The King of Minami
Ginjiro finds that it has become impossible to collect debts when even his regular clients have been conned out of their savings. He discovers that Sugiura gang underboss Domoto (Ryu Daisuke, co-star of Kurosawa Akira’s Kagemusha and Ran) is behind these schemes. Domoto wants to take over the gang and tries to ruin Yukino, the real boss’s widow and the gang’s acting head, by sabotaging a resort hotel project with the help of a thug named Kawatani. Ginjiro, who has lent money for the project, is furious when he learns about Domoto’s schemes and goes into action.
Female Teacher Forbidden Sex
High school teacher Noriko receives regular messages on her answering machine that sound like declarations of love from a student. Meanwhile she is dating her colleague Morimoto. When their tryst is witnessed by their pupils Mitsuru and Yumi, rumours begin to echo through the school corridors.
A recommendation from our store manager Zoë;
A Good Man
Brandon’s gym is unique. He practices his sport at a very social place where athletes are all but family. After a lot of hard work, Brandon will receive the black belt – but not before this short documentary poses the question of what it means to be a good man. Is a ‘good man’ the same as a ‘real man’? And how does faith fit into all of this?
Father, Mother, Sister, Brother
And then there’s the new Jim Jarmusch film, one of our all-time favourite film directors. With his usual wit and cool style, Jarmusch (Only Lovers Left Alive, IFFR 2014) offers a tenderly considerate observation of human relations across the generations. The film’s simple premise foregrounds the humour in repetitions, colour coordinations and archaic wordplay, to mesmerising effect, like a slowly blooming flower.
See you at IFFR 2026!
(photography SUSAN BIJL by Jan Bijl. Photos films taken from IFFR website)
