DER JUNGE UND DER REIHER

Tokyo during the Pacific War: in a fire, Mahito’s mother dies in hospital. His father soon marries Natsuko, the dead woman’s sister, and moves with the boy to her country estate. There Mahito is followed by a grey heron that speaks and claims his mother is still alive. When Natsuko disappears, Mahito follows the bird into a sealed tower – and into a world shared by the living and the dead, populated by talking creatures and rules he must first learn. “Der Junge und der Reiher” by Hayao Miyazaki, a Japanese animated film from 2023, is a story of mourning in the shape of an adventure.

The Japanese director Hayao Miyazaki had announced his retirement from filmmaking in 2013 and returned for this film; work at Studio Ghibli took around seven years, making it the most expensive production in Japanese film history. As the first animated film ever to do so, it opened the Toronto International Film Festival in September 2023. The Golden Globe, the BAFTA and the Oscar for best animated feature followed – Miyazaki’s second after “Spirited Away”. The film was shown at Around the World in 14 Films in Berlin in 2023 in the Japanese Night section.

Shown at the 2023 edition of Around the World in 14 Films.

All films 2023 · Film Archive