But Maree Delofski was so intrigued by a man who had for 25 years been protesting his sacking she was compelled to make a documentary.

Tanaka-san Will Not Do Callisthenics developed into much more than the title suggests.

“I had no idea what he’d be like and I think at first I was attracted to the quirkiness of it but, really, it was deeply serious,” said Maree. “I think what really attracted me to the story was the fact that he was so principled and that he was absolutely determined that he wasn’t going to be bullied and he wasn’t going to do something he didn’t believe in.”

Maree and her husband Mark Gregory travelled to Japan four times to film Tetsuro Tanaka’s daily protests outside his former employer’s premises but, more importantly, to capture his personal life.

They were allowed a level of access to Tanaka that made them feel like a part of his family.

“The only thing I said to (Tanaka) was, he could tell me to turn the camera off any time he wanted,” said Maree. “There was only one occasion when . . . he cries at one point in relation to something that his son has does and he just says ‘please, please’, so I just move the camera.”

That unfiltered access gave them an insight into a “dissenting” Japan they had not previously known existed.

Since being completed in 2008 the film has been screened at festivals around the world and appeared on SBS in March. It is set for its first Mountains screening at Mount Victoria next week.

It will be something of a homecoming for a film that was created independently and almost entirely by Maree and Mark, with some help from other Mountains locals.

Tanaka-san Will Not Do Callisthenics screens at Mount Vic Flicks on Saturday, May 1 at 2pm.

For information on the screening call 0408 238-586.