Whom will one forgive if not one’s enemies? 

On Obon, the Day of the Dead, it is believed that the spirits of Japanese ancestors visit the homes of their families, and the living set paper lanterns on river waters to illuminate their path back to the netherworld. This year, in the midst of a bloody and decades long clan war, the festivities halt as the Okumura troops return from battle, carrying along with their wounded and fallen, the captive daugthers of their enemy. For samurai Oda and his two children, Ryoan and Kaimen, this homecoming begins a chain of events both intimate and violent, revealing harsh truths about themselves and their war, that will change each one of them forever.

“NEVER FORGET, NEVER FORGIVE” were the common calls that Rami Efal, Israel-born author and illustrator and descendent of Holocaust survivors, heard while growing up. As a child he was puzzled: “Whom will one forgive if not one’s enemies?” Told in the tradition of classic epics and tragedies such as Antigone, Throne of Blood, and Lone Wolf and Cub, The Lantern and the Wave invites you to stream of consciousness unlike any other into the vast heart we share together.