In 1975, a project began to restore the badly decomposed Saga Of Anatahan, Josef von Sternberg's last feature. What was essentially a new version of the film, reconstructed according to the director's original conception with outtake footage which had never been incorporated into the original for fear of incurring censorship problems, had its premiere at Los Angeles' Filmex '77.

Anatahan is taken from the celebrated account of a group of Japanese sailors recently found marooned on the obscure island of Anatahan in the Marianas Archipelago. Having lived in isolation from the world for several years after the War's end, they discover the presence of another human being, Keiko, stranded like themselves, who becomes for them the only woman on earth.

Anatahan is the only film over which von Sternberg had total creative control. As always, von Sternberg preferred to construct his own sets rather than shoot Japanese locations. He overcame the problem of language by superimposing a running commentary - sometimes a first-person narration, sometimes a detached observer - over the Japanese dialogue, a move which caused enormous critical controversy.

Keiko is played by Akemi Negishi, who played the young woman in Kurosawa's Ikiru (1952).