A Pale View of Hills
- Japan, Great Britain, Poland, Singapore
- 2025
- 123'
- Polonica
We are in Great Britain, 1982. Niki, young writer of British and Japanese origin, comes to visit her mother Etsuko, to explore her family’s past and write a book based on the memories of her mother. Overwhelmed with grief after her elder daughter’s suicidal death, Etsuko delves deep into the image of the city of Nagasaki from 1952, when it was raising from ruins. The core of the story are her old friend Sachiko and her little daughter Mariko, who constantly references a mysterious woman. As Niki gets more and more engaged into the story being told, she starts to discover gaps and inconsistencies. She will do whatever it takes to find out what really happened in one of the summers.
- Directed by: Kei Ishikawa
- Screenplay: Kei Ishikawa
- Photography: Piotr Niemyjski
- Music: Paweł Mykietyn
- Cast: Suzu Hirose, Fumi Nikaidô, Yoh Yoshida, Camilla Aiko, Kôhei Matsushita
A film director and screenwriter from Japan. He is one of the representatives of the contemporary auteur cinema. He caught the attention of film critics with the film ‘Gukoroku – Traces of Sin’ (2016), a dark psychological thriller exploring the themes of guilt and memories. His successive films further cemented his international reputation, including the film ‘A Man’ (2022), an adaptation of the novel by Keiichiro Hirano, dealing with the concepts of identity and the consequences of one’s past. His film work is a combination of a precise narrative and melancholic cinematography, often exploring existential and social issues.
