If you are looking for a singular cinematic experience, then look no further than this bizarre, anthropological odyssey through the backwaters of Okinawa – a remote island off the South West Coast of Japan, whose confused identity blends Japanese, Taiwanese and even Polynesian cultures. Funded by Nikkatsu, much to their regret and directed by Imamura Shohei, the film is part nature documentary, part exploration into primitive religions and part family drama, as it focuses on the feral outcasts that make up the Futori clan. Banished and ridiculed from the rest of the community amid ongoing accusations of incest – that are not only true but have been rife in the family for generations – the Futoris nevertheless strive to eke out a humble existence fishing, hunting, stealing and even prostituting themselves. Much of the family’s efforts go in to digging a huge pit beside their house, with the aim of eventually toppling a huge rock into it, which tumbled into their paddy field 20 years previous and has stood stubbornly ever since.

The family is confronted by outsiders from the mainland when engineers arrive looking to build a well. The whole area has been targeted for a new airport, but the Futoris are refusing to sell. Not that the film is built around this legal dispute. Imamura is more concerned with how human beings interact with nature – the land, the animals, the creatures of the sea. The film is shot in stunning widescreen over a period of 18 months. It went wildly overbudget and ended Imamura’s relationship with Nikkatsu when it failed to make an impact at the box office. Today, it is no less baffling, uncompromising and strange, but it is also beautiful, intoxicating and consuming. It draws the inquisitive viewer off the sun drenched beaches and deep into the fetid undergrowth, where it seduces, overpowers and consumes you. It is a remarkable piece of work, one that will linger long in the memory and tease you to revisit it, even as you struggle to find any words that can adequately describe it.