Direction: David Gelb
Photography: David Gelb
Editing: Brandon Driscoll-Luttringer
Production: David Gelb, Tom Pellegrini, Kevin Iwashina
USA-Japan, 2011, 81’, Japanese with Italian subtitles

“It is the highest simplicity that leads to purity”, Jiro and the art of Sushi begins with this aphorism, a documentary that talks about the art of a way of eating that has won the globe over the past decade. Because the power of this film is almost entirely based on a minimalism characterized by a philosophical flavour of which Jiro Ono, the owner of Sukiyabashi Jiro in Ginza, a Tokyo neighbourhood, is the living expression. Sushi, such a structurally simple dish, becomes the perfect synthesis of a way of life that binds harmoniously various existential dimensions, in the oscillation of a strict dualism, which is typical of the Eastern world: fish and rice. These are the only two ingredients of a seemingly poor dish, yet so full of implications because these elements don’t have to be seen under their single peculiarity, but as part of their indissoluble union. Gelb builds an effective speech, which exudes an almost ecstatic beauty, supported by a soundtrack, which includes Cajkovskij, Mozart, Bach, Richter, but above all Philip.