Shoplifters
Hirokazu Koreeda, Japan, 2018o
After one of their shoplifting sessions, Osamu and his son come across a little girl in the freezing cold. At first reluctant to shelter the girl, Osamu’s wife agrees to take care of her after learning of the hardships she faces. Although the family is poor, barely making enough money to survive through petty crime, they seem to live happily together until an unforeseen incident reveals hidden secrets, testing the bonds that unite them.
The Japanese director Hirokazu Koreeda has been a fixed star in the author's film firmament for more than twenty years. His films about fragile family ties combine sensitivity with supposed simplicity, in which narrative refinement and intricate moral questions open up. Shoplifters is a prime example of his subtle art and since Nobody Knows perhaps his most beautiful film ever. The tricks and conflicts of a wily family pass in review twice: once we see them with our own eyes, then again with the eyes of the judiciary and the public. The human correctness is shown in the legally wrong life as well as the wrong in the legally correct one. Humour and profundity permeate each other as naturally as in the great films of Italian neorealism, which were the inspiration here. Irresistible.
Andreas Furler
Ein wunderbarer (und politischer) Film über die Schönheit selbst gewählter Bindungen ohne Blutsbande, die noch bis in ihre unvermeidliche Auflösung hineinragt.
Philipp Stadelmaier
Immer siehts aus und scheints in dieser Erzählung, als sei etwas – bevor es dann ganz anders ist. Das aber macht den Zauber und das Geheimnis von Kore-edas Film aus. Sozusagen: die fein gesponnene realistische Poesie. Palme d’Or in Cannes.
Christoph SchneiderA mesure que Kore-eda détricote les apparences qu’il nous a d’abord fait admettre et aimer, c’est l’aspect le plus douloureux, le plus poignant de son cinéma qui gagne la surface, achevant de faire de cette œuvre bouleversante l’un de ses meilleurs films.
Cécile MuryMalgré la banalité de son titre français, le nouveau film de Kore-eda n’est pas qu’une énième histoire de famille. C’est l’occasion pour lui de creuser un terreau sociétal auquel il s’était peu frotté, et de le faire avec la finesse qu’on lui connaît. Un coup de cœur.
Julien DugoisGalleryo
