Great Absence

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This special limited edition slipcover (designed by Elizabeth Yoo) is limited to 500 units and is only available on our website and at select indie retailers. Absolutely no major retailers will be stocking them.

Founded in 2002 as one of the first-ever subscription film services with its DVD-of-the-Month Film Club, Film Movement is now a North American distributor of award-winning independent and foreign films based in New York City. In 2015, Film Movement launched the reissue label Film Movement Classics featuring new restorations released theatrically as well as on home video, with an emphasis on films by auteur directors such as Eric Rohmer, Peter Greenaway and Takeshi Kitano.

When working actor Takashi receives a jarring call from the police, he is forced to reconnect with his estranged father of 20 years, Yohji — an esteemed academic slipping rapidly into dementia.  As Takashi attempts to piece together the mystery of Yohji’s missing wife and the fractured life his father now inhabits, their reunion uncovers long-buried tensions and unspoken grief, forcing Takashi to trace the past of his father that he has long refused to accept.

Unfolding as a meditation on loss — of time, identity, and familial closeness never fully grasped — Great Absence is a “delicately devastating” (Variety) award-winning drama from rising star director Kei Chikaura that navigates the fragile terrain of memory, estrangement, and the quiet devastations of aging.

• Region A Blu-ray
• Interview with director Kei Chikaura
• Behind-the-scenes footage
• 16-page booklet with essay by film critic Brian Tallerico
• English subtitles