True Mothers

Kiyokazu and Satoko are happily married and longing for a child, but they know that they are unable to conceive biologically. Eventually, their wish is fulfilled through adoption agency Baby Baton and they become the loving parents of Asato. Their happiness is abruptly halted when the biological mother turns up at their doorstep: Hikari, who got pregnant as a teenager and was forced to give up her child at birth. Now she is demanding her baby back as well as demanding compensation.

In this moving and subdued family drama, director Naomi Kawase (An, Radiance) examines the nature of motherhood: who is the "true" mother – the woman bringing up the child or the one who gave birth? She takes the time to portray her characters as nuanced as possible; how did Kiyokazu and Satoko deal with their desire to have children, what happened to Hikari when she became pregnant as a teenager? Kawase tells their stories with beautiful images awash with warm light and lush colours.