Dendera (2011)

Dendera is a Japanese movie directed by Daisuke Tengan and based on a 2009 novel by Yuya Sato. It was released by Shochiku in Japan on June 25, 2011.

The story revolves around the same legend that inspired the 1983 film The Ballad of Narayama, which was directed by Tengan’s father, Shohei Imamura.

Ruriko Asaoka stars as an 72-year-old woman named Kayu who is left at a holy site to wait for her own death in accordance with the tradition of her village. She begins praying, expecting to be met with death. However, she’s instead met by a group of elderly women who have banded together to survive their abandonment. Some want to live the final years of their lives out in peace, while others want revenge against the villagers who left them to die.