Rei Naito is an artist who has produced a number of works that inspire quiet amazement in those who have experienced them. Her masterpiece Matrix (Teshima Art Museum) is a space evocative of a gigantic life-form that welcomes everyone and everything inside it. Upon encountering Matrix, director Yuko Nakamura felt irresistibly drawn by its power and spent two years filming Naito after receiving her permission to make a documentary about her. However, in the middle of making the documentary, Naito withdrew her permission for further filming, saying, “When I’m filmed, I can’t create anything.”
The director abandoned the idea of making the documentary for a while, but then decided that, rather than making Naito the subject, she would focus on the question at the heart of Naito’s art: is being alive actually something to celebrate? So, as though filling the gap left by Naito’s absence, she went and met five women. They gathered at Matrix and spoke about life and death, and the pain that they felt. The director’s own inner need to film Matrix and the sensitivity of the women to whom she talked gradually combine to evolve into an experience akin to a prayer.