Cult Japanese director, Kiyoshi Kurosawa will shoot his new drama “To the Ends of the Earth” in Uzbekistan and Japan. The film will be his next effort after “Foreboding” which played recently in the Berlin film festival’s Panorama section.


With an original screenplay by Kurosawa, “To the Ends of the Earth” is a journey of enlightenment that follows an inward-looking and cautious TV host as she visits Uzbekistan, which is both far away and utterly foreign. The cast, which features both Japanese and Uzbek actors, will be announced in May once filming is under way.


Production is by Eiko Mizuno-Gray and Jason Gray of Tokyo-based Loaded Films and Toshikazu Nishigaya of Tokyo Theatres. Uzbekistan’s national cinema agency Uzbekkino serves as co-producer, with backing from the Ministry of Tourism, through the State Committee of the Republic of Uzbekistan for Tourism Development.


“To the Ends of the Earth” is aiming for international festivals and slated for theatrical release in 2019. Tokyo Theatres and King Records will handle Japanese distribution.


“The once-great Timurid Empire has fascinated me for decades. Today, the nation of Uzbekistan exists in the very same part of the world. Now I’m going to shoot a film in the middle of the Silk Road with a cast and crew I admire very much, and a theme which is personal to me,” said Kurosawa in a statement. “’To the Ends of the Earth’ will surely be unlike any film I’ve made thus far. It’s more than one dream coming true at the same time.”