An inspiring story that goes beyond the world of sports and shows us volleyball like we’ve never seen it before. In the 1960s, the players of the Japanese female volleyball team were known as the "witches of the Orient” for their supernatural powers on the court. The team was so popular that several anime series and manga magazines were based on them. Today, those agile players are in their 70s and their delicate bodies conceal an epic past that few know about.
Julien Faraut's film combines their testimonies with unseen archive footage of extremely intense training sessions. The fast-paced editing, amazing anime excerpts and the soundtrack by French musician K-Raw do justice to the players’ talent.
The exultant final of the Olympic Games 1964 - the first time volleyball was an Olympic sport - against Russia in Tokyo marked several generations of Japanese who were still suffering from the wounds of World War II. The documentary captures the excitement of that final in an incomparable way.
