In Venice Competition Film ‘Mr Nelson, Did You Kill People?’ Director Tsukamoto Shinya Asks Vital Questions
The film adapts Allen Nelson’s autobiography and traces a Vietnam veteran’s reckoning with violence, a project Tsukamoto says capped a decade of work.
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8 Articles
Review | Mr. Nelson, Did You Kill People? is a striking portrait of Vietnam war trauma
4/5 stars “We were taught to treat Asians like they were less than human,” says Allen Nelson in Mr. Nelson, Did You Kill People?, a true-life drama about a former US Marine faced with a reckoning. Screening in competition at this year’s Venice International Film Festival, this often powerful work is based on Nelson’s memoir of the same name. Somewhat surprisingly, Shinya Tsukamoto, the cult Japanese director behind Tetsuo: The Iron Man (1989) an…
‘Mr. Nelson, Did You Kill People?’ Review: Shinya Tsukamoto Directs a Bizarre Misfire About a Black Soldier in Vietnam
Venice: Stilted dialogue, oppressive sound design, and a gawking cultural gaze yield one of the most unpleasant films of this year’s competition.
What about the trauma of ex-marines prominent in Vietnam who were disproportionately violent even with the civilian population of the Asian country? This view, alien to Hollywood films about American heroes and patriots, is introduced in the Venice Mostra by a filmmaker Shinya Tsukamoto, a great figure of underground and Japanese cult cinema (the author of Thesuo: The Iron Man, 1989) who, without speaking a word of English, has shot Mr. Nelson, …
In Venice Competition Film ‘Mr Nelson, Did You Kill People?’ Director Tsukamoto Shinya Asks Vital Questions
Independent filmmaker Tsukamoto Shinya was born 15 years after the end of World War II. “Neither my parents nor my grandparents ever spoke about the war, so I grew up believing, without question, that the world was a bright and peaceful place,” says Tsukamoto. “But beneath the surface, many people were suffering from the dark […]
‘Mr. Nelson, Did You Kill People?’ Screening at Venice Film Festival
VENICE, ITALY — September 4, 2026 — Marion Cotillard, Geoffrey Rush and other notable guests attended the screening of Mr. Nelson, Did You Kill People? during the 83rd Venice International Film Festival on September 4. The screening was held at the Sala Grande in Venice as part of the festival’s programme, bringing together actors, filmmakers [...]
Shinya Tsukamoto brings to Competition in Venice 83 "Mr. Nelson, Did You Kill People?".
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