On January 17, the production presentation of the independent movie "Drawing (provisional)" filmed mainly in Hirosaki was held at the Hirosaki Kankokan (Shimohiragincho, Hirosaki City).

The film is co-produced by French film director Damien Manivel and Shizuoka-born Tokyo-based film director Kohei Igarashi. All the casts that appear are locals, and all shooting is done in the Tsugaru region.

The two men met at the 2014 Locarno Film Festival in Switzerland by exhibiting their own movies, and they started thinking about co-creating a new movie around January 2016. The reason for choosing the Tsugaru region as the stage is that "I visited Kuroishi for a shooting job. The world where there was no sound after the first snowfall in Aomori was fascinating," Igarashi recalls.

The story is set in winter Tsugaru, where an 8-year-old boy delivers a picture drawn to his father who works at the fish market. “I'm still talking and deciding the script. I draw in a documentary way,” Damian reveals. “Two ideas were that I wanted to try a movie about children and Damien wanted to shoot snow in Japan,” said Igarashi.

The protagonist, Kogawa Takara-kun, who is a first grader in Hirakawa and lives in elementary school. I scouted Mr. Furukawa who was visiting the live event venue in Hirosaki last summer as a parent and child. The family appearing in the play also appointed Furukawa-kun's actual family.

Mr. Igarashi is enthusiastic, saying, "In the Tsugaru region, people's lives have a history and are blended into the scenery. I feel like the original scenery of Japan. If I can convey new charm through movies." Damian smiles, "I'm happy to be here right now because I wanted to make a movie in Japan."

The shooting is scheduled from January 19th to February 26th. Published in France in December. In Japan, it is planned to be exhibited after the film festival, but Aomori is considering a preliminary screening.