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Director’s Profile

Born in Tokyo in 1980, Fukada Koji is a Japanese director and screenwriter. After taking a fiction course at the Film School of Tokyo, Koji began directing films and took part in Oriza Hirata′s theater troupe, Seinendan. His film, Harmonium (2016), won the Un Certain Regard Jury Prize at Cannes Film Festival 2016; A Girl Missing (2019) was in competition at Locarno Film Festival 2019; and The Real Thing (2020) was selected for Cannes Film Festival 2020. His latest film, Love Life (2022), was presented in international competition at Venice International Film Festival 2022.

Synopsis

Nagi is a village in the mountains. It hosts the Self-Defense Forces training ground and a contemporary art museum. Over several years, vast solar panels have been installed in the mountain forests.
Early one spring, Yuri, a 30ish-year-old architect born in Tokyo, visits Nagi for the first time for a vacation. For a few days, she sleeps at the home of her friend, Yoriko, a sculptor in her 40s, and becomes her model. Until a few years ago, Yuri was married to Yoriko′s younger brother. The couple were both architects and worked in Portugal, but they divorced and Yuri returned to Tokyo alone. Yoriko earns her living by helping her relatives with their dairy farm and teaching painting classes. She is beautiful but single, and is rumored to be a lesbian.
When Yuri gets off at the bus stop in Nagi, she happens to meet Keita, a junior high school student. Keita recognizes Yuri, whom he has never met before, because he saw a drawing that his best friend Haruki had done of Yuri, who modelled for an art class in Tokyo last summer. Keita and Haruki are both Yoriko′s students in her painting class. Keita, who refuses to go to school, paints every day at Yoriko′s house.
Yuri also meets Haruki and his father, Yoshihiro, at Yoriko′s house. Keita has a crush on Haruki, who is of the same sex. And Yoshihiro is secretly in love with Yuri, whom he has only seen in his son′s paintings…

Achievements

2026 Cannes Film Festival - In Competition

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