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Official Selection of Cannes Film Festival 2004
Nobody Knows
A Film by Kore-eda Hirokazu
Synopsis
The Story
Four siblings live happily with their mother in a small apartment in Tokyo. The children all have different fathers. They have never been to school. The very existence of three of them has been hidden from the landlord. One day, the mother leaves behind a little money and a note, asking her 12-year-old boy to look after the others. And so begins the children’s odyssey, a journey nobody knows.
Though engulfed by the cruel fate of abandonment, the four children do their best to survive in their own little word, devising and following their own set of rules. When they are forced to engage with the world outside their cocooned universe, the fragile balance that has sustained them collapses. Their innocent longing for their mother, their wart fascination toward the outside world, their anxiety over their increasingly desperate situation, their inarticulate cries, their kindness to each other, their determination to survive on wits and courage…
Real Events
This Film was inspired by a real event known as the “Affair of the Four Abandoned Children of Nishi-Sugamo.” This affair happened 16 years ago, in 1988.
Born of different fathers, these children never went to school and didn’t legally exist because their births were never declared. Abandoned by their mother, they lived on their own for six months. The death of the youngest girl put a tragic end to this adventure. Curiously, not one inhabitant of the building was aware of the existence of three of the children.
This headline brought up various questions to director’s mind… The life of these children couldn’t have been only negative. There must have been a richness other than material, based on those moments of understanding, joy, sadness and hope. So he didn’t want to show the “hell” as seen from the outside, but the “richness” of their life as seen from inside.
Until he killed a man to protect her.
Distribution: Golden Scene Company Limited
Release
date: October 21, 2004
Category: IIA
Duration:
150 mins
Cinemas:
Broadway Cinematheque / Palace IFC
Website:
http://www.daremoshiranai.com
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