Iogi

Eleven poetic insights into the ordinary everyday life in today's Japan, far removed from geishas, robots, otaku, panty vending machines, and other stereotypical notions of the Land of the Rising Sun.

A Japanese employee decides to leave everything behind and move to a remote island to work on a salt farm. A rock 'n' roll artist plays at local clubs at night and works as a garbage collector during the day. The author of an award-winning manga in Angoulême works part-time as a caregiver in a nursing home to maintain his integrity as an author. On weekends, a father takes his disabled son to the neighborhood swimming pool in a ceremonial manner.

Eleven stories, primarily set in the typical residential area of Suginami in western Tokyo, around the Iogi station, were created under the artistic direction of renowned comic artist Václav Lajch based on the screenplays by poet Jean-Gaspard Plenek. Eleven different art forms, created by cartoonists from the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Ukraine, and Russia, in a book that won the Japan International Manga Award (Tokyo, 2021) and the Muriel Award for Best Screenplay (Prague, 2022).

Screenplays: Jean-Gaspard Plenek
Art: Ondřej David, Daniela Herodesová, Matej Jurček, Adam Kačovský, Matěj Kol, Maria Kudinova, Jozef Pavelka, Jakub Lang, Dominika Lizáková, Petra Ramešová, Petra Šestáková.