Fest Best: EIF Highlights

The Wind Up Bird Chronicle

This long-anticipated adaptation of Haruki Murakami's celebrated 600-page novel stages its world premiere at the King's Theatre. In an amazing feat of brevity, co-writers Stephen Earnhart (a former Director of Production at Miramax Films) and Greg Pierce have condensed the hefty tome into a slim 110-minutes. The play combines acting, puppetry, film, dance and music, and is performed in English and Japanese (with English supertitles). [YS]

Hiroshi Sugimoto

Some of Japanese photographer Hiroshi Sugimoto's best work will be exhibited in Edinburgh this August, with works from his two most lauded series on show. In Lightning Fields, he utilises a Van der Graaff generator to induce electrical charges onto photographic film, while Photogenic Drawings features paper negatives created through the use of light-sensitive paper. [YS]

Koyaanisqatsi

Philip Glass' score to Koyaanisqatsi ("life out of balance")—the first in filmmaker Godfrey Reggio's Qatsi Trilogy—has captivated music lovers since its release in 1982. In August, he will perform live at the Playhouse as the film is screened in his first ever EIF appearance. Be sure to catch performances of Powaqqatsi ("life in transition") and Naqoyqatsi ("life as war") while Glass in town, too. [YS]