Asian Cinema: Nobody Knows + lecture

The film Nobody Knows (also known as Children's World) returns to Polish cinemas! The repremiere screening at the Kosmos Cinema, where Asian cinema always has a special place, will be preceded by a lecture by film expert Wojciech Tutaj.

The Fukushima family is moving into a new apartment. Keiko, the mother of a 12-year-old boy named Akira, introduces him to the tenant as her only child. However, it soon turns out that she has hidden the existence of the other children — Kyōko (11), eager to learn the piano, the energetic and noisy cliffhanger Shigeru (6), and the youngest, five-year-old Yuka. Therefore, only Akira can go outside, and none of the children attend school. The two oldest children watch with increasing anxiety as mom's returns “from work” take longer and longer. When Keiko falls in love again, she decides to leave for a longer stay with her new boyfriend, leaving the children in the care of her eldest son. And although he promises to return, he disappears for good, and Akira and his siblings will be forced to survive on their own.

Hirokazu Koreeda, telling this story, was inspired by real events that took place in the late 80s in the Sugamo area (part of Tokyo). However, the Japanese director does not show in “Nobody Knows” a cheap sensation, a matter that is a great breeding ground for tabloids. Instead, he tries to capture something pure and real. In the relationship between siblings, in the way they look at their characters, in the maturity that had to be learned far too early.

Wojciech Tuaj — a graduate of film studies at the Jagiellonian University in Kraków. Film critic and journalist associated with, among others, the Filmweb portal, Kino Monthly, SFP Film Magazine and Tygodnik Przegląd. He specializes in contemporary Chinese cinema. Distinguished in the National Film Speakers Competition in 2020