Shoplifters 15

Masterful storyteller Hirokazu Kore-eda won the top prize at Cannes film festival in 2018 with Shoplifters. Equal parts bitter and sweet, this is a deeply moving drama about the ties that bind a struggling family together.

On the outskirts of Tokyo, inside a ramshackle bungalow, a family of outsiders have created a home together. When Osamu and his son happen upon a little girl, alone in the cold, they take her back to the family household. Although struggling themselves, and relying on petty theft to make ends meet, the family don’t hesitate to welcome this forgotten child as one of their own.

Charming and delicate, Shoplifters is a satisfying exploration of life lived on the margins, and an impressive return to form for Kore-eda.