Director's Notes
Naomi Iizuka’s Anon(ymous) takes place in the contact zone between the epic and the intimate. As her teen goddess in the story Naja repeatedly reminds the main character Anon when he feels lost he must, “Begin in the middle. On the border. On the crossing. Begin in the place in between.”
In the US we struggle with sitting in the in-between. We tend to prefer beginnings and endings. We like our resolutions and destinations. We forget that most of the time we exist in the middle of our own stories. Perhaps that is why Iizuka chose to adapt Homer’s The Odyssey, the most epic of epics, in order to tell the story of the collective loss, strength, and humanity of refugees.
Through Anon’s journey we witness unspeakable acts of cruelty and earth-shattering moments of beauty. Through it all we follow him as he searches for home only to discover with him that home is not what we thought it was but is always on the border, on the crossing, in the place in between. Home is who we carry with us on our journey.
Dr. Shannon Walsh
