Bestselling Japanese Novelist Maha Harada Says ‘If This Is a Dream, I Hope I Never Wake Up’ About Her San Sebastian – and Busan – Bound Directing Debut ‘In My Father’s Room’

Maha Harada spent two decades building scenes on the page before she ever stood behind a camera. Now 64, the best-selling Japanese author is making her feature directorial debut with “In My Father’s Room,” a film adapted from her own short story “An Unnecessary Man,” and it arrives in competition at the San Sebastian Film […] Novelist Maha Harada on how a Rothko painting and her own father shaped her directing debut 'In My Father's Room.' Maha Harada spent two decades building scenes on the page before she ever stood behind a camera. Now 64, the best-selling Japanese author is making her feature directorial debut with “In My Father’s Room,” a film adapted from her own short story “An Unnecessary Man,” and it arrives in competition at the San Sebastian Film Festival before moving on to the Busan International Film Festival.

Ahead of both stops, Bitters End has already sold the film to France, Korea, Taiwan and Hong Kong, with more territories under discussion. The transition from novels to film feels less like a leap than a continuation, Harada says. Her years working as a museum curator shaped how she writes long before she considered directing. “When I write fiction, I tend to depict scenes