Yoko Yamanaka's DESERT OF NAMIBIA Sets Theatrical Release

Yoko Yamanaka's Desert Of Namibia will be released by Kani Releasing on May 16 at Metrograph (New York), May 21 at Laemmle (Los Angeles), expanding nationally in select markets. Further dates for Desert Of Namibia's North American theatrical release to be announced.

The film follows mercurial 21-year-old Kana (Yuumi Kawai), a hair-removal technician at a salon in Tokyo, who bristles against the beauty expectations placed on women her age. Her erratic mood and default to self-destruct impacts all of her relationships, as moments of levity erupt into violence and optimism simmers to despair. The award-winning Kawai embodies Kana with an emotional intensity and clear-eyed precision that evokes Gena Rowlands in Cassavettes' A WOMAN UNDER THE INFLUENCE. Yamanaka’s sophomore work sculpts a subtle intimacy reminiscent of Pialat's À NOS AMOURS, and masterfully conveys the chaos and disarray of a young woman at odds with the world as much as with herself.

The film had its world premiere at the 2024 Directors Fortnight at the Cannes Film Festival where Yamanaka became the youngest female director to win the FIPRESCI award. It went on to screen at MOMI's 2025 First Look festival. Kawai was awarded the New Actress Award at the 95th Kinema Junpo Best Ten Awards for her role in the film. Yamanaka was nominated for Best New Director and Kawai for Best Actress at the 2025 Asian Film Awards

Desert Of Namibia is Yamanaka’s second feature following her acclaimed 2017 debut AMIKO. AMIKO won the Audience Award at Japan’s influential Pia Film Festival for emerging directors, and went on to screen internationally at other film festivals, most notably at the 2018 Berlinale, where Yamanaka became the youngest feature filmmaker in the festival’s history to screen her work. Watch the trailer for the film below.