Project Detail

A Pale View of Hills

Synopsis

Desperate to understand her family’s past in Japan before her birth, Niki probes her mother, Etsuko, about their time in Nagasaki. Told through flashbacks, Etsuko recounts the tale of a friend she knew long ago... Spanning the two timelines, the film is a moving and hopeful account of the generational impact of war and tragedy on one family.
Official Selection Cannes Film Festival 2025 - Un Certain Regard - World premiere
Official Selection BFI London Film Festival 2025

Details

Year: 2025
Type of project: Features
Running time: 123 min
Director: Kei Ishikawa
Producer: Miyuki Fukuma, Marta Gmosinska, Hiroyuki Ishiguro, Elizabeth Karlsen, Mariusz Wlodarski, Stephen Woolley
Executive Producer: Naomi Despres, Hiroshi Hayakawa, Kazuo Ishiguro, Michèle Marshall, Tatsumi Yoda
Editor: Kei Ishikawa
Screenwriter: Kei Ishikawa (screenwriter), Kazuo Ishiguro (based on the book by)
Director of Photography: Piotr Niemyjski
Production Designer: Adam Marshall, Hiroyuki Wagatsuma
Composer: Pawel Mykietyn
Principal cast: Suzu Hirose, Fumi Nikaido, Yoh Yoshida, Camilla Aiko

Genre

Drama

Production Status

Complete

Production Company

Japan, UK, Poland, Singapore co-production

A Bunbuku (JP), DESMAR (SG), Gaga (JP), Lava Films (PL), U-Next (JP) production in association with Number 9 Films (UK)

Number 9 Films

8-9 Stephen Mews
London
W1T 1AF

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Sales Company

Gaga Corporation

TY Bldg.,
2-22-18 Minami-Aoyama
Minato-ku
107-0062 Tokyo
Japan

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Set in the summer of 2000, 14 year old Lucian explores his sexuality through fantasy in a pre-internet world. Lucian is a 14 year closeted gay kid going through puberty. He doesn’t know how to communicate in a world that doesn’t speak his language so he lives in isolation, observing the world as an outsider. With the fear of ever exposing who he really is, Lucian seeks comfort in fantasy and lives his life in a daydream.

LGBTQIA+