The documentary “Okinawa Saudade” follows two third-generation Okinawan-Brazilians as they learn about their families’ ties to Okinawa and consider what it means to feel connected to a distant homeland. Directed and filmed by Yoju Matsubayashi, the film focuses on personal stories shaped by migration, displacement and cultural memory.
The film opens with the 1908 arrival in Brazil of the Kasato Maru, which carried 325 Okinawans and was the first immigrant ship from Japan to reach the country. Today, an estimated 200,000 Brazilians are of Okinawan descent. Matsubayashi narrows that history to the families of Yumi and Everton, both of whom explore their heritage through traditional arts.
Yumi, a teenager, practices Ryukyu Buyo, an Okinawan dance, while Everton learns Eisa, a folk dance accompanied by drums. Their interest in these traditions becomes a route into family histories, including stories of wartime exile from Santos. The film follows them as they travel to Okinawa through exchange programs and traineeships, where they encounter relatives and learn how cultural practices have developed in Brazil and on the island.
Matsubayashi builds the story from interviews, archival material and quiet details: waves seen from above, a grandfather growing dragonfruit from Okinawan seeds, and a subject’s tearful response to photographs unseen for years. The film also touches on reasons families left Okinawa, including the military draft and starvation, as well as land seizures by the US military after the war.
Everton explains that Eisa helps him search for a sense of belonging as a Brazilian who does not look like what others expect a Brazilian to look like. Both he and Yumi encounter differences between how their art forms are practiced in Brazil and Okinawa. Their teachers, however, resist treating one version as the sole authentic form, emphasizing that traditions can change.
“Okinawa Saudade” premiered at the 2026 Tokyo International Film Festival and is seeking US distribution.
Sources: IndieWire.