The director Nitesh Anjaan has made a documentary about Mette Holm, who has been translating the work of the Japanese author Haruki Murakami into Danish for many years: Dreaming Murakami (https://www NULL.idfa NULL.nl/nl/film/62075d91-295b-4171-ae39-b739672c9381/dreaming-murakami). This glimpse into Holm’s life follows her on a trip to Japan while working on the translation of Kaze no uta o kike (Hear the Wind Sing), the world-famous author’s debut novel.
Mette Holm, still from the documentary ‘Dreaming Murakami’
The translator feels perfectly at home in Murakami’s fantasy world, in which animals can talk and multiple universes coexist. Conversations with fellow translators, sometimes about a single Japanese word, reveal how deeply involved Holm is with her craft. Like the author’s work, the Japanese language also reflects a reality that is unlike what we know in the West. “It’s like they are thinking in a totally different way,” explains Holm. And that’s precisely what challenges her and makes translating this work so much more than a job – it’s a way of life. As Mette struggles to find the perfect sentences capable of communicating what Murakami’s solitary, daydreaming characters are trying to tell us, the boundary between reality and fiction begins to blur.
Click here (http://www NULL.finalcutforreal NULL.dk/dreaming-murakami/) for more information about the documentary. For a direct link to the trailer, please click here (https://vimeo NULL.com/242255046).