Written and directed by Hirokazu Koreeda, the movie Shoplifters, starring Lily Franky and Sakura Ando, is about a family that is into shoplifting to cope up with poverty. In the story that takes place in Tokyo, Osamu, a daily-wage labourer, is forced to leave his job following an injury on his ankle. He lives in a house owned by an elderly woman Hatsue, with his wife Nobuyo, who works in the laundry service. Aki, who works at a hostess club and Shota, a boy, also live with them. The home is supported by Hatsue with her expired husband’s pension. Osamu and Shota do shoplifting using hand signals, and they believe that it is fine to steal things that have not been sold. One night, they see Yuri, a girl who is locked out in a neighbouring apartment balcony.
They bring her home for dinner, but never return her after finding evidence of abuse. One day they learn from news that police are investigating Yuri’s missing. They change her appearance and give her a new name – Lin. Rest of the movie talks about what happens to the character after the change.
Koreeda wrote the screenplay taking cues from various reports on poverty and shoplifting in Japan. The film was premiered at the Cannes on May 13, 2018 and was a critical and commercial success in Japan. It won three awards in the Mainichi Film Awards, a series of annual film awards sponsored by Mainichi Shinbun, a newspaper company in Japan. It was also nominated for the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film and Golden Globe Award for Best Foreign Language Film.The screening will begin at 6.30 pm. Entry is free.
