True Mothers

Product Description

**JAPAN’S OFFICIAL SUBMISSION TO THE 2021 ACADEMY AWARDS**
After a long and unsuccessful struggle to get pregnant, Satoko and her husband decide to adopt a child. Over the next six years, the middle class couple and their young son Asato settle into a comfortable, albeit routine, life. The family’s orderly existence is shattered by the arrival of Hikari, a young woman claiming to be Asato’s biological mother, demanding his return. As tensions mount, Satoko grows more and more emboldened to defend her family. Weaving together multiple timelines and genres with a contemplative pacing and keen sense of place, hallmarks of Kawase’s work, TRUE MOTHERS is “is a deeply touching celebration of women who assume duties of love, support and compassion” (Awards Watch).
Bonus features include, featureette of actress Juliette Binoche and filmmaker Naomi Kawase discussing True Mothers, and short film Return To Toyama.

Review

Nominated – Golden Seashell – San Sebastian Film Festival
Nominated – Gold Hugo – Chicago Int’l. Film Festival
Official Selection – Cannes Film Festival
Official Selection – Toronto Int’l. Film Festival
Official Selection – Rome Film Festival
Official Selection – Busan Int’l. Film Festival
Official Selection – Philadelphia Film Festival —

True Mothers covers an impressive amount of narrative ground, morphing from social issue film to domestic drama, romantic melodrama, violent urban thriller and at last a quiet reflection of cathartic confrontation.- Nicholas Bell, Ion Cinema
Naomi Kawase’s best film in years, TRUE MOTHERS is a deeply touching celebration of women who assume duties of love, support and compassion. – Mina Takla, AwardsWatch
The latest film from the prolific Japanese director Naomi Kawase is a rewarding drama which weaves together knotted maternal bonds and textured character portraits. An elegant, absorbing piece of storytelling, its universal themes and a tone which conveys empathy without tipping into sentimentality…. – Wendy Ide, Screen Daily
True Mothers is one of Naomi Kawase’s best films to date, a thoughtful drama about the shame associated with unconventional motherhood. –Alex Heeney, Seventh Row[T]he film shimmers with beauty and sadness…. “True Mothers” wows in the end with an emotional banger of an ending that’s a truly devastating convergence of all the film’s threads. Kawase ties everything together beautifully…. – Ryan Lattanzio, IndieWire
The Japanese auteur Naomi Kawase has returned with another of her highly distinctive, tremulously sensitive movies…there is a sustained emotional seriousness in this movie, with committed performances. – Peter Bradshaw, The Guardian
True Mothers is a thoughtful, delicate film that approaches a difficult subject matter with beautiful cinematography, realistic and realized characters, and a balanced approach to the story telling that will leave you speechless. Watch it. – Watch or Pass
True Mothers is probably the most mainstream effort yet from Naomi Kawase…. True Mothers is sensitive and layered. – Ben Kenigsberg, The New York Times
True Mothers (Asa ga Kuru) is a true Naomi Kawase film: a lush visual reworking of parental angst and despair, offset by frequent interludes of communing with that great healer, Mother Nature. –Deborah Young, The Hollywood Reporter