Johnny Depp stars as W. Eugene Smith, the American photographer who documented the effects of mercury poisoning on the citizens of Minamata, Kumamoto, Japan, in the film Minamata, directed by Andrew Levitas. Also starring in the film are Hiroyuki Sanada, Tadanobu Asano, Katherine Jenkins, Jun Kunimura, Lily Robinson, Ryo Kase, Akiko Iwase, Minami, and Bill Nighy.
Minamata had its world premiere at the 2020 Berlin International Film Festival and opens in theaters beginning December 15, and expand into 2022.
Three-time Academy Award® nominee Johnny Depp plays celebrated war photographer W. Eugene Smith in a real life David vs Goliath story, pitting Smith against a powerful corporation responsible for poisoning the people of Minamata, Japan in 1971. With the glory days of World War II far behind him, Smith has become a recluse. Between an impassioned Japanese translator called Aileen (Minami) urging him to go and a much needed commission from “Life” Magazine editor Ralph Graves (Nighy), Smith is finally convinced to journey back to Japan to expose the devastating annihilation of a coastal community, victims of corporate greed and complicit local police and government. Armed with only his trusted Nikon camera, Smith must find the images that will bring this story to the World. Minamata is a moving redemptive story of how one man’s powerful photograph impacted the world, yet in order to find it he had to open his heart.
Watch the official trailer for Minamata.