Still The Water(bc sunday)

Japanese arthouse auteur Kawase Naomi's latest meditation on the relationship between man and nature is a coming-of-age romance between the daughter of a terminal ill shaman and a teenage boy trying to overcome his parents' divorce. Mostly shot on Amami Island, the ancestral home of Kawase's family, this absorbing and beautifully shot drama sees the filmmaker looking inwards as she patiently contemplates spiritual issues like death, reincarnation, familial roots and sexuality. The refreshingly raw performances of young stars Murakami Nijiro and Yoshinaga Jun lend the film a much-needed humanity that provides balance to the story's philosophical elements. In competition at Cannes Film Festival.