Yah Chayka! / 2008

Renowned Japanese poet Shuntaro Tanikawa teams with former "rock chick" Wakako Kaku to craft this pensive love story told almost entirely in still photographs. After steering a suicidal man away from the brink of despair, an astronomical observatory worker teaches him her favorite watchword, "Yah Chakya!" ("I, Seagull"). The phrase had once been spoken by the first female cosmonaut, and was the call-sign for the Soviet spacecraft Vostok. But for this woman, the word has taken on greater meaning; not only is it a greeting, but a secret handshake and a symbol of the universe as well. Upon learning the phrase, the man finally finds the strength to go on living.