Nisei
2023 · 21m · USA
Directed by Darren Haruo Rae
Genres: drama, historical, war
Tones: contemplative, dark, tender
Two Japanese-American brothers, stripped of their citizenship and confined in WWII internment camps, volunteer for the all-Nisei 442nd Regimental Combat Team to prove their loyalty to a country that does not want them. Inspired by the director's grandfather's memories.
Picked by Margot
The scouts
It's a risky move—making a family heirloom into a war film when everyone's expecting earnest revisionism—but Rae doesn't genuflect to the expected emotional beats, and that refusal is what makes it work.
Rae situates himself deliberately within the lineage of Japanese-American cinema and WWII historiography, but the real craft move is how he lets intimate family memory and collective trauma occupy the same frame without collapsing into sentimentality.
The decision to shoot the internment sequences with such compositional restraint—letting negative space do the heavy lifting instead of performance—is what transforms a personal story into something that feels both specific and archetypal.
Reviews
The editing by Caleb Wheeler stands out as one of the best parts of the short, with a pace that fits the movie's overall aesthetic; the director's eye for writing and composition is evident throughout.
Listed among Variety's top 15 Shortlist Predictions for Best Live Action Short Film at the 96th Academy Awards.
Festivals
- Cinequest Film Festival 2023, Grand Jury Prize for Best Short Drama