Inspired by the tragic death of a Sri Lankan woman in a detention facility, an art school grad student faced a controversial immigration issue head-on and produced a feature film for his graduation project.

In a rare development, the film “Imaginary Line” is also being screened at a Tokyo cinema.

The movie encourages the audience to imagine the plight of foreign nationals in Japan where tougher immigration policies are being considered.

Director Kensho Sakamoto, 27, completed the film in 2024 for his graduation project at Tokyo University of the Arts (Geidai) Graduate School of Film and New Media.

The title derives from a technical term in filmmaking, which refers to an abstract line connecting characters facing each other.

Sakamoto thought it could also represent a line that cruelly divides people in a society where some members have no residency status.

The story centers around Yume, who was born in Japan but has no residency status because her Nigerian mother illegally entered Japan, and her friend Fumiko.

One day, Yume travels to another prefecture from her place of residence without permission. She is taken away by a police officer and ends up in an immigration detention facility.

The strong-minded Yume is exhausted and gradually begins to feel hopelessness about her life in Japan.

Fumiko, meanwhile, finds herself increasingly angry at the absurdity of Yume not being released from the facility.

Sakamoto took an interest in the immigration control system in 2021 after learning in a news report about Wishma Sandamali, who died at the Nagoya Regional Immigration Services Bureau facility.

While Sakamoto was thinking about the theme for his graduation project in 2023, it was reported that the revised Immigration Control and Refugee Recognition Law was enacted.

He felt an urge to deliver a movie to the world that would make people want to learn about the immigration control law and refugees even if they have no interest in such issues.

In preparation for the project, the director frequently visited immigration detention facilities in Tokyo’s Shinagawa Ward and Ushiku in Ibaraki Prefecture to interview detainees. He also met foreign nationals on provisional release who were allowed to live temporarily outside the facilities.

He met a total of about 40 detainees and foreigners on provisional release.

“I listened to their stories to understand their fears, discontent and anxieties,” he said.

One of the detainees was left dumbfounded and couldn’t have conversations with him, while a young person on provisional release asked Sakamoto how to find a part-time job requiring no residency status.

As he continued making visitations, he started wanting to convey that there are people whose rights are severely restricted when they just want to live like “Japanese people.”

Masato Hojo, manager of Eurospace, an arthouse cinema in Tokyo’s Shibuya district that offers a showcase of graduation projects from Geidai for one week every year, praised “Imaginary Line.”

Sakamoto gained cooperation from Eurospace to have the film shown solely at the theater this year, two years after it was completed.

“It ends without solving anything, has no happy ending or doesn’t condemn anybody, but it lingers in the heart,” Hojo said.

Graduation projects from Geidai come in many varieties, ranging from artistic films to entertainment movies, he said, adding, “I have never seen a graduation work with such a strong social message.”

Currently, photos and videos are often posted on social media to expose the faces of foreign nationals, making them targeted for slanderous comments.

The government is considering imposing restrictions on accepting foreigners and introducing a more rigorous screening system for foreign residents on grounds of "public anxieties."

“I feel like we have become too narrow-minded when it comes to dealing with foreigners,” Sakamoto said. “I intended the film to encourage people to think again.”

“Imaginary Line” is currently being shown at Eurospace before it will be screened in Osaka and Aichi prefectures and elsewhere.