You will have to practice your French in order to attend this conference (free admission) at Uni Dufour. Japanese filmmaker Hayao Miyazaki, the last master of hand-drawn feature animation, has referred to his latest film, The Wind Rises, as his last. First question that comes to our mind is: why? Why ending his career now, at this particular moment? Professor Michael Lucken – historian and professor at the National Institute of Oriental Languages and Civilisation in Paris – will try to answer this question and many others during a conference on May 6th, @ 6.30pm. He will present to us his analysis of Miyazaki’s last film, which he refers to as a “mysterious historical movie”.

For those who have not seen this masterpiece (how come????), The Wind Rises offers the relatively grounded biography of a Japanese aviation pioneer: Jiro Horikoshi who won fame as the designer of the Mitsubishi A6M Zero fighter during World War II. Miyazaki’s father was reportedly involved in supplying components for the plane, perhaps inspiring his son and instilling the dream of celebrating the engineer on film. That too will be answered by professor Michael Lucken.

Free admission.