1980s, a Tokyo suburb. When her father is diagnosed with cancer, young Fuki ponders death a lot. What if she died – would all her classmates mourn and miss her? The 11-year-old girl finds refuge in fantasies and imagination that keep revealing ever-new horizons. Hungry for the attention of her mother Keiji, who is overwhelmed with work and palliative care duties, her imagined world offers only a faint comfort. One day, Fuki sees a telepathy and hypnosis show on TV – she becomes so captivated that, besides card tricks, practical magic and the search for the supernatural, she gains a new phone friend…

When reality fails us, how far can escapism empower us without causing harm to ourselves? Japanese director Hayakawa’s second feature film – screened in the main competition at Cannes – is a deeply personal, memory-tinged piece. In her own adolescence, the director’s father was struggling with illness, and she took refuge in a world “inside her head”. Indirectly continuing the family drama tradition of Yasujirō Ozu, the director unfolds the world of her alter ego over the course of one summer in a delicate and poetic way. A sign of the times is encoded in the title of the film – in the 1980s, Japanese society was keen on Westernisation, and nearly every home featured a replica of some Western painter’s work. The director recalls Pierre-Auguste Renoir – and the spirit of Impressionism in the film shines life-affirmingly.