Distance

Members of a cult put chemicals into a city's water supply and then commit mass suicide at their base by a lake. Three years later, relatives of both the victims and the perpetrators go to that lake: people who lost a brother, a wife, a son. On the way back their car is stolen and they have to spend the night at the old base. Hirokazu Kore-eda built the cult on Aum Shinrikyo. His interest is not in explaining the perpetrators but in the fact that those left behind still believe they knew them. Each describes the person they remember, and none of them explains what was done. The telling is deliberately loose: flashbacks arrive without warning, the camera is handheld and stays on faces. It screened in the main competition at the 54th Cannes Film Festival, the first of Kore-eda's films to compete for the Palme d'Or. Arata Iura, Yūsuke Iseya, Susumu Terajima and Tadanobu Asano star. Who it's for: Viewers who like Kore-eda, narratives about collective guilt and responsibility, and slow drama. Who it's not for: One of his most difficult films; the narrative is deliberately unclear and telling the characters apart is hard. Anyone looking for answers will not find them.