Nacu no niwa: The Friends

The topic of a cross-generational friendship was already covered in many films. Yet, under Shinji Sōmai’s direction, it is treated in a very original and kitsch-resisting manner. The film fascinates with its non-opulent formal freshness and unforeseen dark confrontations of old age, burdened by the past, with spontaneous and unrestrained childhood. (Summer Film School)