Intended as a ‘cinematic poem’ with almost no conversation, only music, this film is revolves around the life of a farming family who live in a remote island village, cut off from mainland Japan. Describing the film, Shindo wrote that he was trying to capture the life of human beings as he saw it, like ants struggling against the forces of nature.

Prior to the making of this film, Shindo’s production company was on the verge of bankruptcy. Shindo had come to the terms with the difficult reality that The Island was to be his last film

The film was a budget production, made with only 13 staff . During the months of filming the cast and crew lived on the remote island, cooking their own meals and living in the same basic conditions as the locals. Ironically, it was not at the Japanese box office that the film found success, but overseas, where it won 14 awards, including the prestigious Grand Prix at the Moscow International Film Festival. To Shindo’s great surprise the success of the film saved not only his film company from bankruptcy, but brought him into the International film arena. Through the filmmaking experience of The Island, Shindo discovered “collective film production”, which is the method he has used to produce most of his movies during his 50 years as a filmmaker.