Hirokazu Kore'eda

Hirokazu Kore-eda (b. 1962, Tokyo) first gained attention at Venice with Maboroshi no hikari (1995), a cinematic elegy about a young woman. In After Life (Wandafuru raifu, 1998) he explored the theme of memory while also letting audiences see the filming process. Distance (2001) is about people whose relatives followed a religious cult to their voluntary death. The protagonists of Nobody Knows (Dare mo shiranai, 2004), which competed at Cannes, are four abandoned children. He has shot several documentaries for Japanese television that look at disadvantaged people, including those living on the margins of society. In 2007 Karlovy Vary’s audiences were treated to the historical film Hana (Hana yori mo naho, 2006), and Czech theaters screened his comic-book adaptation Air Doll (Kuki ninqyo, 2009). In 1996, he was awarded Japan’s highest documentary prize.

48. MFF Karlovy Vary