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Hideo Kojima & Fatih Akin - Marché du Film Cannes Next Panel 2025 - Gamereactor Cut Part I

How does technology influence storytelling? This is the question the co-protagonists of this talk at the Cannes Film Festival answered from different angles, as the Japanese video game creator is about to release Dead Stranding 2 and with the German moviemaker ready to premiere Amrum. Here's the first third of the panel from Gamereactor's exclusive POV.

Audio transcription

"Hello everyone, hello, hi, hello and welcome to this panel in which we will answer a simple question or not, how does technology influence storytelling and to answer this one for this discussion please make a warm welcome to a genius, one of a kind, someone who is obsessed with cinema since he was a kid, he made his first video game nearly 40 years ago, he has created one of the most famous franchises in the history of video games which is Metal Gear Solid and inputting storytelling in a way no one ever did before, recently he created one of the richest, most realistic and intense game of all time, Death Stranding, the sequel which will star Norman Reedus, Léa Seydoux, Al Fanning and Luca Marinelli, Death Stranding 2 on the Beach comes out this June the 26th and I can assure you, you are not ready for this, please welcome Hideo Kojima, Hideo is here with Aki, Aki will translate because Hideo will answer in Japanese and so Aki will say the English version of the answers and to discuss with him, someone who like him got into cinema when he was just a kid, you may know him for Hidden which won the Golden Bear at Berlin in 24, The Age of Heaven for which he got the best screenplay in Cannes in 2007, Soul Kitchen of course and recently in The Fade which won the best actress in Cannes in 2017 for Diane Kruger, he is presenting this year in Cannes Premier, please welcome Fatih Akin."

"So the idea of this panel is to confront two ways of creating stories, one with a very visceral reality cinema and the other with a futuristic video game using tons of technology most people don't even heard of but first of all before talking about this, I was curious to ask, we are here at the Cannes Film Festival, Fatih you are used to come here quite often, Hideo it's the first time that you are actually here, how do you feel about being here at the Cannes Film Festival?
Well this is my dream of coming to Cannes so I'm having fun."

"So I came to Cannes before the film festival but this time it's the real Cannes Film Festival that I'm here so I'm happy.
And for you Fatih, you are used to it?
Well I mean for me cinema is my religion in a way and so this is a very spiritual place, this is like the Mecca of the film world, so there are a lot of people like Muslims they go every year or many years to Mecca because once they were there once, they feel like they were touched by God and I was touched by the film God, so once you are here you always want to come here."

"So it would be surprising for some people to reunite the both of you but you actually know each other for quite some time now, can you tell us how did you two meet?
Well I was a big fan of Fatih's film, In the Fade, the movie, I always get, like for Japan I get like to write a comment and I was a big fan of Fatih so I saw the movie and Diane Kruger was the main character and since my game has Norman Reedus and it's Norman's wife, so I said, I said you know Norman, like I spoke to him for about an hour of how I felt about the movie and Norman told Diane and Diane told Fatih, that's how we got connected."

"And in Japan when they come, I met Fatih and I've been like real friends ever since.
What do you find so company into each other's world and work?
What do you like about each other's work?
Look what we are looking in cinema is always the one moment what you haven't seen before."

"When I was here, the first time I was here was in 2005 for the jury and Emir Kusturica was the president of the jury and he said something smart ass thing like, when you see one moment in the film which you have never seen before, then it's a good film no matter what."

"Emir said that and when I see Hideo's work and Hideo's games and the visuals and the ideas, they are full of moments that I have never seen.
So if he would be a film maker, you know, he would be the best, you know, he would.
Fatih's movie, I see scenes that I've never seen before, there's so many genres in movies, so he makes, you know, many main characters which is child, old, and also refugee, society issues that he has in his movie."

"So it's really touching, even if I'm not the same nationality.
So I'm not sure why I'm so touched, but if I stay with him, maybe I'll know the secret why I'm so touched, even though we're different nationalities.
Sometimes Fatih draws himself as well, but he's loved by all over the world and I want to learn."

"And also, he is full of energy and I want to absorb that too.
And same as Tom Cruise, you know, he's like, Fatih is as much as energetic as, you know, Tom Cruise.
I have a stunt to do, so we have to hurry up."

"I have a question for you, Fatih, before going actually to the panel.
We all know over here that many directors have worked with Hideo on the previous game.
We can quote some, Nicolas Winding Refn, Guillermo del Toro.
What do you think filmmakers are so attracted by Hideo's work and way of working?
I think, I mean, cinema is a two-dimensional art form, in a way, and we're all very, like, visual explorers."

"You know, we're always on the quest for how can we do it different and what is more and where is the...
It's like the secret chord Keith Richards was talking about, you know, there's one secret chord on every guitar and no one found it."

"And we're looking for the secret chord in the visual, you know.
And especially the directors, you mentioned Josh Miller, Refn, and we have a feeling like Hideo knows where the secret chord is, you know.
He knows where the secret chord is, somehow."

"That's why we are attracted to his work.
Do you have a secret first?
Yes, I do have a lot.
A lot, okay.
So let's get into this."

"Hideo, we know that Fatiha will have a character in the new Death Stranding game.
How did you create the character, actually?
Well, I got to know Fatih, and we always talk about creation, and he looked like he wanted to be in my game."

"So I said, do you want to be in my game, and he says, yeah.
So I thought, like, I have to think of, like, this dolmen setting in one week, and when he came to Japan, I explained to him what the character is, and he said he still wants to do it."

"So we scanned him in Japan, and Death Stranding character is always like someone who lost something.
The same with Fatih's film as well.
It's about the connection of family and things like that."

"So I thought, you know, I thought his character should be important with connection.
We have, we will have images of the character just after, but it's very, it's crazy how you look, like, the screen just in front of you.
It's scary."

"It's scary.
Well, this is before he becomes dolmen.
Yeah, sure, but still, it's crazy how it looks.
Hideo, I have a question about the panel and the subject."

"How until which point can technology actually recreate reality?
Is there a limit of it?"

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