Sadako And The Thousand Paper Cranes

In August of 1954, 11-year-old Sadako Sasaki, a Hiroshima resident, felt the first stirrings of the sickness that would soon be diagnosed as "the atom bomb disease": leukemia. When a friend told her that folding a thousand paper cranes would result in the gods granting her wish to get well, Sadako set to work. Director George Levenson has assembled a notable cast of artists in bringing Sadako's story to life. Based on a book by children's author Eleanor Coerr, and illustrated by Caldecott award-winning artist Ed Young, Sadako is narrated by actress Liv Ullmann and features the lovely solo guitar music of famed new age pianist George Winston. It is truly one of those wonderful collaborations wherein each of the elements nicely complements each other. As Sadako folds the paper cranes, viewers' hearts lift, borne on the wings of hope, an almost palpable hope that flows across the screen in Young's beautifully liquid drawings, and is carried in Ullmann's voice. Sadako would not reach her goal of 1,000 folded paper cranes, but that job would be completed by other children, children inspired by Sadako's message of hope and peace for the world. A lovely, lovely film, haunting and heartbreaking--and a wise testimony to both the horror of the past and the promise of the future. A promise of "never again." Highly recommended. Editor's Choice. (Available from: Informed Democracy, P.O. Box 67, Santa Cruz, CA 95063; 1-800-827-0949.)