Three reasons why ‘A Family Affair’ won the Palme d’Or

CANNES – The 2018 Cannes Film Festival has just closed its doors this Saturday, May 19, and this 71st edition rewarded the film by Japanese director Kore-Eda Hirokazy, “A family matter“, of his mythical Palme d’Or.

The film, whose release date is still unknown, tells the story of Osamu and his family. Returning from yet another shoplifting expedition, Osamu picks up a little girl on the street who seems to be on her own. At first reluctant to shelter the child for the night, Osamu’s wife agrees to take care of her when she realizes that her parents are mistreating her. Despite their poverty, surviving petty thefts that supplement their meager salaries, the members of this family seem to live happily, until an incident brutally reveals their most terrible secrets…

After winning the Palme d’Or, The HuffPost reveals the three arguments that allowed “A family affair” to triumph at Cannes.

A funny story

“There is a grace in this film, in the staging”, commented the director Denis Villeneuve, member of the jury, about this Palme d’or able to seduce a fairly large audience.

Indeed, the story imagined by Kore-Eda Hirokazu shines in part thanks to its staging. We discover characters that we quietly follow in their unusual adventures, until a disturbing element comes to shed light on the dark sides of this family. The way this story is delivered is therefore a real asset.

Children

The second highlight of “A Family Affair” are the two children who are featured by Kore-Eda Hirokazu. As in “Capernaüm” by Nadine Labaki, Jury Prize for this 2018 edition, the film depicts children growing up in poverty.

Kore-Eda Hirokazu’s style, his melancholic tone and his great tenderness towards the two little ones work wonders in this film. “Children always have unexpected reactions, it’s interesting to film”, explains the one who likes to dwell on their gestures and their looks. Admirably embodied by Kairi Jyo and Miyu Sasaky, the two toddlers of “A family affair” alpaguent us.

A family matter

Author of poignant family chronicles, the filmmaker has built an intimate work, highlighting “ordinary people” like Ken Loach, whom he admires. “Family, is it blood ties or spending time together?”, he keeps asking himself. without finding the answer.

Fine chronicler of the bonds of blood and heart, Kore-Eda Hirokazu, 55, is at the origin of a coherent work mixing social vein and description of family relations as in “Nobody Knows” (2004), which has brings out. The film tells the story of four brothers and sisters abandoned to their fate in an apartment deserted by their mother. Next will come “Still Walking” (2008), about mourning, “I wish” (2011), about two brothers, “Like father, like son” (2013), Jury Prize at the Cannes Film Festival, which also questions the ties within the family and which has long been considered his masterpiece. More recently, “Our little sister” (2015) questions the irruption of a half-sister in a family.

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