Screening times:
Thursday, June 18, 6:30 PM
Sunday, June 27, 6:00 PM
Chie Hayakawa | Japan | 2025 | 120m
Suburban Tokyo, 1987. Imaginative eleven-year-old Fuki begins her summer break lonely and adrift – her kind, terminally ill father has landed once again in the hospital and her mother, distracted by the inevitability of his diagnosis, hasn’t much time for her daughter. Fuki responds to the situation not with tears but with placid curiosity about the prospect of death – becoming fascinated by the occult and experimenting with hypnotism. As the summer passes, Fuki encounters a string of lonely, imperfect adults, all of whom nudge her closer to an emotional truth she isn't quite ready to name yet.
Chie Hayakawa’s (Plan 75) sophomore feature is a tender, sometimes unsettling portrait of childhood grief and the whimsically dark imagination of an inquisitive young girl. Hayakawa has said of Renoir ”It could be that the experience of living with a father who was dying led me to be interested in how people confront death. The story is for anyone who might be feeling alone even with their family, including my past self.” Led by a transfixing performance by newcomer Yui Suzuki (the first actress Hayakawa auditioned for the role), Renoir is a coming of age movie made of small moments that add up to enormous truths.
“It’s bold and admirable to make a film centered around a complicated child protagonist that doesn’t strive to appease what audiences have come to expect from these types of stories.” - Carlos Aguilar, RogerEbert.com
“Hayakawa’s script eschews any sweeping commentary in favor of a more honest and incidental portrait of growing up — one that would rather be true to the reality of Fuki’s experience than mold it to fit the poetic forms of adult memory.” - David Ehrlich, IndieWire
Asia Pacific Screen Awards: Winner of Best Screenplay.
Asia Pacific Screen Awards: Winner Best New Performer (Yui Suzuki).
TAMA Film Awards: Winner of Best Film.
$12:00 ( $11.40 at the door if available)
