After Life
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Screenings with audiodescription and SDH subtitlesTheatrical Screenings
Kinoteka 1
Muranów
Kinoteka 1
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Film description
In one of Hirokazu Koreeda’s most tender and extraordinary works, the deceased arrive in a realm suspended between life and eternity. There, they meet guides who help them prepare for what lies ahead. Before moving on, however, each must choose a single cherished memory to be recreated as a film. Once screened, that memory becomes their sole remaining trace – and they vanish, taking the rest of their past with them. After Life is thus a film about the art of choosing: a single image, a scent, an encounter or a fleeting moment worth saving from oblivion.
Koreeda crafts a vision of the afterlife free from religious dogma and deeply grounded in everyday experience. He is not concerned with what awaits us after death; instead, he asks what from our lives is truly worth carrying forward. For months, the director spoke to people he encountered by chance on the streets of Tokyo, asking them about their most cherished memories. Their answers became the basis for the screenplay, and Koreeda invited some of those he interviewed to take part in the film. The result is a documentary-like fantasy in which a fictional purgatory becomes a meeting place for individual and collective memory. There is no single religion, no revelation and no certainty about what lies on the other side. There is only memory – and the attempt to preserve what matters most.
The film is dedicated to the memory of Jagoda Murczyńska, a longtime programmer and organiser of Five Flavours, who passed away in February 2022.
text:
Łukasz Mańkowski
Hirokazu Koreeda
Born and based in Tokyo, one of the most recognisable figures in Japanese cinema. He initially studied literature at the prestigious Waseda University, but soon joined the television production company TV Man Union, where he made award-winning documentaries critical of contemporary Japanese society. His feature debut, Maborosi, premiered at the Venice Film Festival, where Koreeda received the Golden Osella in 1995. Over the past two decades, he has remained a fixture on the international festival circuit, with his films winning awards and earning acclaim from critics and audiences around the world. His greatest accolade came with Shoplifters, which won the Palme d’Or at Cannes in 2018. Alongside directing, he has also worked as a producer for many years, becoming a mentor to a new generation of Japanese filmmakers.
1995 Maboroshi no hikari / Maborosi
1998 Po życiu / Wandafuru raifu / After Life
2001 Oddalenie / Distance
2004 Nikt nie wie / Dare mo shiranai / Nobody Knows
2006 Hana yori mo naho / Hana
2008 Ciągle na chodzie / Aruitemo, aruitemo / Still Walking
2009 Dmuchana lala / Kūki Ningyō /Air Doll
2011 Życzenie / Kiseki / I Wish
2013 Jak ojciec i syn / Soshite chichi ni naru / Like Father, Like Son
2015 Nasza młodsza siostra / Umimachi Diary / Our Little Sister
2017 Sandome no satsujin / The Third Murder
2018 Złodziejaszki / Manbiki kazoku / Shoplifters
2019 Prawda / La vérité / The Truth
2022 Baby Broker / Beurokeo / Broker
2023 Kaibutsu / Monster
2026 Chłopiec z pudełka / Hako no naka no hitsuji / Sheep in the Box
2026 Rukku Bakku / Look Back
