Hellfire: A Journey from Hiroshima

They are known throughout the world “the artists of the atomic bomb,” the Japanese husband and wife muralists, and ‘Toshi Maruki. Their collaborative relationship is unique: one paints a painfully detailed vision of the victims of the atomic blast; the other conceals the carefully delineated brush strokes with a grey-black ink “wash.” The first artist restates the specifics of the image; the second re-conceals. Through the repetition of this process, the work emerges. The subject of Hellfire is so painful, so fraught with implications for our collective fate, that one would expect a film that is unwatchable. The success of the film, however, is born of its subjects strengths, a delicate balance of memory and compassion. Gold Prize, 1986 Competition for Films on Japan; Interfilm Award, 1986, Mannheim Film Festival.