The Saga of Anatahan

Director: Josef Von Sternberg

1953 / 92min / DCP

Visionary Josef von Sternberg had once been a feared and revered presence on the Paramount Studios lot, but after one too many clashes over his obsessive perfectionism rendered him all but unemployable, and a falling out with Howard Hughes over his Jet Pilot, “Jo” went independent, directing, writing, shooting, and narrating this sublimely artificial picture, shot entirely on a Kyoto soundstage, about a dozen Japanese seamen stranded on a Pacific Island with one woman—unaware that World War II has long since ended, and that a little war of their own is in the making. A favorite film of one of von Sternberg’s students during his tenure teaching at UCLA, none other than Mr. Mojo Rising himself, Jim Morrison.

Distributor: Kino Lorber

Part of Last Testaments