Skip to content
Lecture

Professor David Peimer
Two Masterpieces of Japanese Film: Kurosawa’s ‘Rashomon’, ‘Ran’

Saturday 16.05.2026

How to watch

This lecture starts on 16 May at 5:00pm (UK).

Summary

Rashomon (1950): Four witnesses—a bandit, a bride, a ghost of her samurai husband, and a woodcutter—give contradictory stories of a violent encounter in a forest. This fascinating film portrays multiple, conflicting perspectives of a single event—revealing how hard it is to know the truth due to our human need to appear more justified than others. Ran (1985) is a remarkable epic based on King Lear in which an aging feudal warlord divides his kingdom among his three sons, but he is driven mad by betrayal as his family descends into war.

Professor David Peimer

An image of David Peimer
David Peimer is a Professor of Literature, Film and Theatre in the UK. He has worked for the University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, New York University (Global Division) and was a Fulbright Scholar at Columbia University. Born in South Africa, David has won numerous awards for playwriting and directing. He has most recently directed Dame Janet Suzman in his own play, Joanna’s Story, at London Jewish Book Week. He has published numerous books, including Armed Response: Plays from South Africa and the digital book Theatre in the Camps. He is on the board of the Pinter Centre (London), and has been involved with the Mandela Foundation, Vaclav Havel Foundation and directed a range of plays at Mr Havel’s Prague theatre.