A Girl Missing

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Directed by: Koji Fukada
2019 / 111 minutes / Unclassified 15+ (under 15s must be accompanied by an adult)

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Belonging to a family means being guilty by association

Diligent home-care nurse Ichiko is a fixture of her client’s family life: nursing the ailing bedridden grandmother while also warmly supporting her two granddaughters. After a seemingly normal day, the family’s youngest granddaughter, Saki, fails to return home and vanishes without a trace. After that, family life is never quite the same.

Struggling with the grief of Saki’s disappearance, Ichiko is further devastated when the media reports the suspect’s identity as her own nephew. Her impulse to honestly admit the connection is quickly hushed by the victim’s older sister, who insists Ichiko’s importance to the family–and her innocence– necessitates and validates the silence. Ichiko attempts to maintain her respectable identity while her world steadily begins to crumble.

The internationally acclaimed, award-winning duo of director Koji Fukada and actress Mariko Tsutsui return after their Cannes’ Prix du Jury, Un Certain Regard-winning Harmonium in this captivating slow-burn drama. In a mesmerising performance by Tsutsui, A Girl Missing brilliantly delves into the fragility of reputation, identity, and control in our social existence.