After Hitler in "Moloch" and Lenin in "Taurus," Russian film maker Alexander Sokurov has completed his trilogy on controversial 20th century leaders with "Sun," devoted to Japanese emperor Hirohito after his country's 1945 defeat. "I was drawn to the extraordinary character of the emperor Hirohito, of whom we know very little, to his fate and his deeds," Sokurov told AFP.
A fixture of prestigious international film festivals and one of the few who set the tone in Russian cinema, Sokurov in 1999 received an award in Cannes for his film "Moloch", which tells the life of Adolf Hitler and his mistress Eva Braun.
His film "Sun" will premiere later this month at the Berlin Film Festival.
The movie was shot for 2.5 million dollars (1.9 million euros) at Saint Petersburg's Lenfilm studios, in Sokurov's home city, and is set during the 1928-1989 reign of Hirohito.
One of the most turbulent periods in Japan's history, it saw the Empire of the Rising Sun launch into a triumphant expansionist drive in the 1930s, before suffering a humiliating defeat after the United States dropped two atomic bombs at Hiroshima and Nagasaki.
"Sun" recounts the day in 1945 when Emperor Hirohito, considered to be the direct descendent of sun goddess Amaterasu, renounced the divine nature of his power, thus opening up Japan's path towards constitutional monarchy and democracy.
One excerpt Sokurov allowed AFP to see shows Hirohito having a conversation with general Douglas McArthur, soon to become the head of US occupation forces in the country.
Another excerpt shows the emperor absent-mindedly posing in front of a dozen US photographers in the imperial palace's gardens.
The photographers fall over each other to take a few pictures of the defeated monarch, and one of them shouts: "Hey! He looks just like Charlie Chaplin !" Then, to Hirohito: "Hey, Charlie, turn around!"
As a US officer apologises for the photographer's behaviour, Japan's 124th emperor humbly replies: "It is quite all right."
Hirohito then slowly makes his way towards the palace's gates, before suddenly stopping and asking: "Do I really look like this actor?"
"My goal was to show his human nature. (He was) a statesman who preferred political humiliation rather than (causing) the death of human beings," Sokurov said.
In 1945, Hirohito, who was officially at the head of a five-million-strong army, chose to surrender rather than to continue the war and risk seeing the United States drop a third atomic bomb on Japan.
"This is a very sensitive issue for the Japanese," Sokurov admitted. However, he said he was convinced that "Sun" would be favourably received and that there was nothing in the movie that could hurt the feelings even of the honour-obsessed Japanese.
Although the film was shot in Russia, Sokurov and his team made a field trip to Japan, and he said he "did the utmost to be faithful to the atmosphere of that time." In particular, he recreated several of the imperial palace's rooms at Lenfilm studios.
He also "devoted particular attention to the physical likeness between the actors and the historical characters they play," said Sokurov's producer Andrei Syglie.
However, Sokurov remained secretive about that aspect of the movie, even refusing to disclose the name of the actor playing Hirohito before the film's first showing in Moscow, on February 8.