Kabei - Our Mother

Kayo lives together with her husband Tobei and her daughters Teruyo and Hatsuko. The year is 1940. A nationalist wave washes over Japanese society and any opposition is punished harshly. Tobei is arrested by the secret police, suspected for being involved in anti-government activities.

Kayo and her daughters are frozen out of society because a troubled people fear that being seen with ”traitors” may cause reprisals from the regime. The small family is therefore exiles in their own home. The film revolves around Kayo, whose life is a balancing act under the tyranny of censorship and she must also guard her own and her daughters’ dignity. She must be strong in a reality where men either appear sadistic or mentally broken. Kaabee - Our mother is a powerfully claustrophobic drama, where the magic one often associates with Japanese cinema is substituted by a minimalist realism. It portrays war from the Japanese’s own perspective, and it is a powerful portrait of how censorship managed to create a politics of power that paralysed the people. Here are no big battle scenes but a suffering that silently and slowly breaks people down. The film is based on the well-known screenwriter Teryo Nogami’s war memoires from World War II. In Kabei – Our Mother Yoij Yamada’s directorial skills are complemented by some marvellous performances, including from Sayui Yoshinaga, one of Japan’s greatest star actresses.