TRACÉ
A man awakens on a beach and scans his surroundings in search of a woman. Guided by a series of scattered clues, he begins to walk. The two are eventually reunited, yet as they stand side by side gazing out over the shoreline, a quiet sorrow lingers in their eyes.
Shot in a single take and presented entirely in reverse, this film offers a unique meditation on time, reality, and the fleeting nature of human connection.
2023 / 17min / Japan - Belgium - France
Screenings and Awards
2023.08. Rhode Island International Film Festival (USA) — Semifinalist
2023.09. Camera Japan Festival (Netherlands)
2023.11. Nasu Short Film Festival (Japan)
2023.12. Special Screening in Osaka (Japan)
2024.04. Tokyo Lift-Off Film Festival (Japan)
2025.03. Special Screening in Manila (Philippines)
2025.05. Chameleon Film Festival (Italy) — Winner: Best Film, Best Director, Best Actor, Best Actress
2025.06. Stockholm City Film Festival (Sweden) — Finalist
2025.06. Peshawar International Film Festival (Pakistan) — Semifinalist
2025.06. Arthouse Festival of Beverly Hills (USA) — Winner: Best International Short Film
2025.09. Florence Indie Film Festival (Italy) — Winner: Best first time filmmaker short
Cast: Yuta Ohashi, Yukina Kuno,
Patrice Boiteau, Ai Sasaki, Ryo Haruyama, Akari Ishiyama
Writer/Director: Olivier Kazuma
Producers: Olivier Kazuma, Raf Keunen, Patrice Boiteau.
Director of photography: Shinnosuke Goto
Boom operator: Ayu Hosoya
Location managers: Taishi Watanabe, Haruka Saito
On set coach: Ai Sasaki
Assistant Directors: Ryotaro Tamagawa, Ai Sasaki
Assistant camera: Atsushi Fukui
Painting: Mayumi Michihiro
Editor: Olivier Kazuma
Music: Raf Keunen
Sound design & mixing: Jeroen De Meyer
Color grading: Ryota Mori
Still photographer: PABO
Director's note
As the film is being shown to the public, I thought you might enjoy the film more if I explained the background of its creation. I know there are pros and cons to giving a commentary on a work, but since this work is very abstract and conceptual, I thought it would be better to supplement it with some words so that viewers can see it from different perspectives
OVERVIEW
TRACÉ consists of a single shot, filmed and played backwards, then edited in reverse.
At first glance, the story appears to be about a man waking up on a beach and finding the woman he loves. However, the film is structured in such a way that we realize by the end that quite the opposite may have happened, and that the narrative unfolding before our eyes is not based on a single temporal axis. One could even consider that what is depicted in the film is not exclusively a representation of what unfolds over the course of the 17 minutes of screening, but also evokes the past, present, and future of the protagonists. The film is a journey through their universal memories.
THE TITLE
At the end of the film, the initial title, TRACÉ, shifts to ÉCART. TRACÉ is therefore an anacyclical title in that, whether read forward or backward, it makes sense in absolute terms and in relation to the film's universe. TRACÉ evokes both the natural contours of the coastline and the life trajectory of the protagonists. ÉCART, for its part, evokes the gap between the audience's initial perception of the world the film presents and the new approach to this world once the chronology of events is called into question. More broadly, it touches on the gap that exists in our perception of time and reality.
OBJECTS
Several important objects appear in the film. The first of these is a metronome. This is a highly symbolic object, as the metronome's pendulum moves in a completely reversible manner. Of course, at some point, its movement will be frozen, but as long as it remains in motion, there is no notion of forward or backward.
The cassette player, which appears in the middle of the film, is another important element: although the film uses sound effects to indicate the direction of time, the cassette tape in the player can freely scroll in either direction.
On the other hand, there are objects whose movement is beyond our control, such as the balloons that, at the end of the film, rise irreversibly into the sky after a young woman lets them go.
FILMING
Shooting and performing the entire film backward required a tremendous amount of preparation and numerous rehearsals from the crew and actors. The main actors had to walk backward, perform every movement backward, and master every change in facial expression.
In acting, reason normally precedes action, but during filming, with everything reversed, the actors had to learn to perform differently, as if they were performing a choreography. The camera also had to move ahead of the actors to avoid any disruption during the playback reversal. It was a colossal undertaking.
SOUND
Since the film was shot backwards, we had to design a soundscape from scratch. Jeroen, the soundtrack designer, had to "dress" a silent world and bring a grain of reality and truth to the film. All of his efforts were enhanced by the magnificent performance of Raf, who composed the film's music simultaneously with the sound effects. I must say that the beautiful and eloquent musical score brought a dimension to the film that I hadn't initially envisioned.
TIME
The world around us has always been in constant change, but I wonder to what extent the emergence of new technologies has affected our notion of the passage of time. In any case, despite my young age, I share the sentiment of many people who believe that time is passing faster and faster, to the point of dizzying speed, and that it is more necessary than ever to reflect on how we should guide our lives and face the time allotted to us.
Humans have always been interested in the invisible, the passage of time, and the notion of reality. It is in this continuing interest that I decided to make this film focused on the theme of time.
I have long perceived time as something simple and obvious, surrounded by numerous landmarks like clocks and calendars, but now it is a fascinating concept for me. And the more I question it, the more it shrouds itself in mystery and confronts me with contradictory considerations.
How can I express these contradictions and this mystery within the framework of a cinematic work? It was while reflecting on this question that I concluded that I needed to design a film shot in sequence shots and project it backward.
I therefore hope that this work will provide an opportunity to reflect on the notion of time.