Stay Mum

Chisako reluctantly decides to look after her elderly father in his rural home. The family disputes have gone on for too long and she has never forgiven him for his past misbehaviour. In the meantime, however, his senile dementia has progressed to such an extent that Kozo hardly or only rarely recognises her as his daughter. He lives alone, his wife has long since passed away, and although he can continue to pursue his artistic work in his studio, the local doctor asks Chisako for her help in caring for him. A task that places a heavy burden on the young woman. When Chisako seeks a change of pace for an evening with an old friend, her life takes a new turn. A child washes into her life, a young boy with no memory. Traces of abuse on his body lead Chisako to take the boy in and offer him temporary protection. She calls him Takumi and slowly gains his trust. Not entirely altruistically, as it turns out, Takumi strongly evokes memories of her own son, whom she lost years ago.

Director Kōsai SEKINE is a familiar face for Japannual. In 2019, he was represented at the festival with two films and was also a personal guest in Vienna. In addition to his documentary Tower of the Sun, it was above all his feature film debut Love At Least, which was shown at several festivals and was also nominated for awards. His documentary film Dust To Dust won the Human/Nature Award at this year's Tribeca Film Festival. Anne WATANABE in the leading role is known as Anne as a model and lends her voice to the characters in anime productions. She has already appeared in The Deer King (2022) and The Wonderland (2019) at Japannual. Her father is played by veteran actor Eiji OKUDA, proud winner of the Blue Ribbon Award (Like a Rolling Stone, 1994), who has already enhanced a number of films at Japannual with a supporting role: Dare To Stop Us (2019), Goodbye Cruel World (2022) and this year A Spoiling Rain.