In the great ocean, a lamafa (whale hunter) engages in battle with a whale to humbly and gratefully take its life. This intense scene was captured by Japanese photographer Bon Ishikawa,
Japanese film director Keiko Yagi got the award for Best Director at the 2018 London International Filmmaker Festival for her documentary film ‘Behind THE COVE.’ Ms Yagi produced the film in 2015 to counter The Cove, which received the Academy Award for Best Documentary Feature in 2010.
People from the US, the UK, and Australia—countries that are especially concerned about the whaling problem—have told me that the film was eye-opening.
It happened in the lush woodland area of Khimki, near Moscow, late at night in July 2012. Someone set the heavy equipment on fire in the construction site for a new highway leading from Moscow to St. Petersburg, the second capital of Russia.
The town I was supposed to cover was called Taiji. It was the subject of a documentary called The Cove, which was up for an Academy Award. My bosses wanted someone to be there in case it won, to get the town’s side of the story.
Behind the clump of panicked dolphins, a row of Japanese fishing boats and skiffs appeared, the low thump of their engines rolling in on the sea breeze.
It might sound like a regular scene in a normal fishing village, but it wasn’t. The boat was setting off to hunt whales destined for scientific research, and this was the last time it would do so.