In Venice Competition Film ‘Mr Nelson, Did You Kill People?’ Director Tsukamoto Shinya Asks Vital Questions

‘Mr. Nelson, Did You Kill People?’ Review: Shinya Tsukamoto Directs a Bizarre Misfire About a Black Soldier in Vietnam

Venice: Stilted dialogue, oppressive sound design, and a gawking cultural gaze yield one of the most unpleasant films of this year’s competition.

In Venice Competition Film ‘Mr Nelson, Did You Kill People?’ Director Tsukamoto Shinya Asks Vital Questions

Independent filmmaker Tsukamoto Shinya was born 15 years after the end of World War II. “Neither my parents nor my grandparents ever spoke about the war, so I grew up believing, without question, that the world was a bright and peaceful place,” says Tsukamoto. “But beneath the surface, many people were suffering from the dark […]

"MR. NELSON, DID YOU KILL PEOPLE?"

THE STORY – Allen Nelson was born into a poor family in New York and joined the Marine Corps at the age of 18 to escape discrimination and poverty. After serving at Camp Hansen in Okinawa, he was sent to the front lines of the Vietnam War in 1966, believing he could become a proud […]

Shinya Tsukamoto Brings ‘Mr. Nelson, Did You Kill People?’ to Venice, Closing a War Trilogy He Shot Himself

Tsukamoto's Vietnam-veteran drama — adapted from Allen Nelson's memoir, with Rodney Hicks in his first lead and Geoffrey Rush as an army psychiatrist — world-premieres in competition at Venice. The director wrote, shot and edited it himself, closing the war trilogy that began with Fires on the Plain.