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| On November 19, 1977, 13-year-old Megumi Yokota leaves at 6.00 PM her school in Niigata, a coastal city in Japan, never to come home. Megumi is abducted by North Korean secret agents to teach Japanese to trainee spies but her parents will know that only two decades later. Reunion seems to be close but then the parents are told that Megumi had died, without any conclusive evidence given to this fact. They cannot and will not accept her death. They strongly believe she is still alive and keep on searching up to the present day, trying to finally bring their daughter safe home.
MEGUMI is a poetic and affecting account of tragic loss and the power of hope. The film focuses on the personal loss, hope and longing of her family and those close to Megumi, all of whom patiently await her return. Heartbreaking interviews with the parents of Megumi Yokota, her twin brothers and her former school head are combined with associative poetic fiction scenes with a 13-year old Japanese actress playing the role of Megumi Yokota and a 40 year old Dutch actress. |
MEGUMI is not a reconstruction of the tragic event but a film about the universal feeling of grief parents experience when they lose their child. It is filmed from the perspective of the filmmaker who becomes so involved and committed that also she starts to believe, like Megumi’s parents, that Megumi is really still alive. | |