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Woman in the Dunes

Original title: Suna no onna · Turkish title: Kumların Kadını

“Haunting. Erotic. Unforgettable.”

1964 · 2 h 27 min
Directed by Hiroshi Teshigahara
DramaThriller

Cast

Eiji Okada Kyōko Kishida Hiroyuki Nagato

Credits

Written by: Kôbô Abe

Plot

An entomologist on a collecting trip is tricked by villagers into spending the night in a house at the bottom of a sand pit, with a young widow who lives there. In the morning the rope ladder is gone, and he is made to help shovel sand from the pit for the village's benefit. Hiroshi Teshigahara's 1964 film, based on Kōbō Abe's novel, is a haunting allegory of freedom and routine.

Sinekatalog’s take

An entomologist is trapped in a sand pit with a woman and told to shovel for life. Teshigahara's existential parable is sensual, claustrophobic and strange, and it makes sand feel like a character.Sinekatalog’s own editorial review – not a user or critic quote.

Ratings

IMDb: 8.4 / 10 (26,787 votes)
IMDb rating and vote count from the IMDb ratings dataset (October 2026). Scores change over time.

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