UNLOVED International Competition

Winner of the Grand Rail d’Oro and the Ecumenical Jury Prize for Future Talent at the 20001 Cannes Film Festival, UNLOVED is an extraordinary film and an incisively astute depiction of ambition.

Mitsuko is content as an administrator at city hall. Eiji, the head of an IT company, is impressed and offers her a better job. She declines, yet he pursues. He lavishes her with gifts, but she decides to date her downstairs neighbor instead. Hiroshi is an amateur guitarist who, like Mitsuko, is simply happy to be himself. One night, Eiji and Hiroshi meet while Mitsuko is out. Hiroshi starts to feel he isn’t good enough for Mitsuko, and Mitsuko realizes that Hiroshi is not immune to the rampant ambition contaminating Eiji. Mitsuko is a woman who wages war against a society where competition is the ultimate human activity and respect the ultimate goal.

Director Manda co-wrote the screenplay with his wife, Tamami. Together, they have created a haunting, poetic rapture about identity.