White Flowers and Fruits

Shiro no kajitsu

Director: Yukari Sakamoto
Country: Japan

German Premiere
2025 | 110 min. | Japanese
Subtitles: English, German

Cast_ Miro, Anji Ikehata, Nico Aoto, Mugi Kadowaki Screenplay_ Yukari Sakamoto Camera_ Yasutaka Watanabe Producer_ Teruhisa Yamamoto Rights_ Bitters End, Inc.

An atmospheric ghost story and crime mystery with echoes of ›Picnic at Hanging Rock‹ and Japanese folklore. Visually mesmerizing.

Anna can see ghosts – at least that’s what she claims. Because she also comes across as unfriendly and rebellious, she is an outsider at the Christian girls’ boarding school she attends. Quite the opposite of her roommate Rika, who wins the hearts of both teachers and students without any seeming effort. When Rika suddenly takes her own life, everyone is shocked. The entire school, especially her closest friend Shiori, tries to make sense of it. How could someone like Rika do such a thing? Then Anna finds Rika’s diary and begins to feel the girl’s spirit slowly taking possession of her. Will Anna uncover the truth behind Rika’s suicide? The diary seems to offer the first clues to the haunting question of why.

A dreamlike and gripping meditation on grief, community, and empathy, told through hypnotic imagery.

Director

After studying philosophy at Sophia University, Yukari Sakamoto (born 1990) studied editing at the Tokyo University of the Arts. She directed the short films ›rebOrn‹ (2018), ›For Rei‹ (2019), and ›The Tree‹ (2022), which were screened at several festivals and won awards. ›White Flowers and Fruits‹ is her feature debut.

Trailer

Screenings