OUR LITTLE SISTER (UMIMACHI DIARY) World Cinema

Director Hirokazu Kore-eda (LIKE FATHER, LIKE SON, AFI FEST 2013) has crafted another carefully observed film about family. Kore-eda again draws a beautiful portrait of an unconventional family, and shows how stepping outside of standard familial structures can reveal truer depths of love and connection. When a family patriarch dies, three sisters travel to the rural countryside to attend his funeral. While there, they briefly connect with their much younger and more timid half-sister. On an impulse, the women invite her to come back and live with them in the city. With this delicate, perceptive and articulate meditation on the fragility of familial bonds, Kore-eda once again confirms his storied reputation as a modern master. —Lane Kneedler