A Shape of Time – The Composer Jo Kondo

Jo Kondo is one of Japan’s most acclaimed contemporary composers. His compositions are both abstract and intuitive, devoid of any clear directions but not without form. Like Kondo’s unclassifiable music, Viola Rusche and Hauke Harder’s film is constantly evolving. They follow the composer from a concert in Amsterdam to a high-end restaurant in Tokyo, a recording studio in Cologne and the temple he attends in his birthplace. Inspired by the aesthetic of Japanese filmmaker Yasujiro Ozu, who, like Kondo, was born in Kamakura and whose work reveals the same familiar, day-to-day energy, this documentary avoids the spectacular, tuning its narrative to the unique rhythm of Kondo’s music.