In 1970s Japan, during a period of social upheaval, Satoshi Kirishima, a member of the far-left extremist group Scorpion Cell, became a fugitive and lived under a false identity as Hiroshi Uchida for fifty years. Working as a construction laborer in Fujisawa, he remained haunted by memories of his comrades ‒ those imprisoned, exiled, or dead by suicide. In 2024, at the age of seventy and dying of cancer, he confessed his true identity: “I am Satoshi Kirishima!” Legendary Japanese filmmaker and political activist Masao Adachi ‒known for his radical cinema and his ties to the Japanese New Wave and the far-left movement‒ reconstructs, with piercing insight and deep emotion, the anguish, guilt, and unwavering conviction of a man who devoted his life to the idea of revolution.

For over 50 years, Japanese director Masao Adachi has been a seminal figure in radical political cinema. A former member of the Japanese Red Army, his works, from 1971’s The Red Army/PFLP Declaration to 2024’s swiftly produced Escape, are foundational to activist filmmaking.