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True Mothers (Virtual)

Available February 26 – March 11, 2021

$10 General Admission

Via Kino Films on Eventive

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After a long and unsuccessful struggle to get pregnant, Satoko and her husband decide to adopt a child.

Over the next six years, this middle-class couple and their young son Asato have a comfortable and routine lifestyle. However, their orderly existence is shattered by the arrival of Hikari, a young woman claiming to be Asato’s biological mother, and she demands his return. As tensions mount, Satoko grows more and more emboldened to defend her family.

 

Naomi Kawase’s film offers a new perspective on the notion of adoption, as she presents different timelines, narrative threads, and genres—from moral drama to teenage romance, social exposé, and even a thriller—into a touching, sometimes unsettling, emotionally intense cinematic experience.

 

Screened in Japanese with English subtitles.

 

Naomi Kawase  |  Japan  |  2020  |  140 mins.

"Sensitively told, visually engaging"

- San Francisco Chronicle

"An elegant, absorbing piece of storytelling, its universal themes and a tone which conveys empathy without tipping into sentimentality"

- Screen International

"There is a sustained emotional seriousness in this movie, with committed performances"

- The Guardian

"The film shimmers with beauty and sadness"

- IndieWire

"A lush visual reworking of parental angst and despair... a moving dramatization of maternal feelings"

- Hollywood Reporter

"Japan's Naomi Kawase is among the tenderest of filmmakers...and her latest, True Mothers, is a fine example of this Cannes-honored director's sensitivity and lyricism"

- Los Angeles Times

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