Harpur Cinema presents ‘Shoplifters’ – Kore-eda Hirokazu – Japan – 2018

In this “brilliant, audacious gem,” Kore-eda returns to a favorite subject of his, the family and “the ways in which it can be dismantled and reassembled” (The Guardian). With delicate brushstrokes, blurring the divide between the unforgivable and the understandable, the film follows with tenderness the five members of a family who all live in a cramped apartment and supplement their meager incomes selling what they steal on daily shoplifting expeditions. One day, they impulsively take in a neglected young girl found in the street. The eerily moving film with its “sheer depth of compassion and knowing humanity behind every frame” (BFI) builds to a most extraordinary surprise ending.

Won: Cannes Film Festival, Palme d’Or – International Cinephile Society Awards, Jury Prize – Munich Film Festival, Best International Film

Nominated: Academy Awards, Best Foreign Language Film – BAFTA Awards, Best Foreign Film