One brother, one camera, twenty years of family secrets unraveling in real time.
In 1983, the director’s 24-year-old sister developed symptoms of schizophrenia. Her parents couldn’t accept it—refusing to seek treatment for their sick child, they confined her to their house, to the point of even fixing a padlock on the front door to lock her in. Her younger brother, suspicious of his parents’ actions, began filming the family in an effort to openly question them. A family conflict that lasted over twenty years.
Direction
Twenty years of footage shaped into devastating coherence.
Editing
Home video becomes evidence, memory becomes indictment.
Director
Fujino Tomoaki
Trivia, insights & behind the scenes
1980s Japan had severe stigma around mental illness; families often hid ill relatives rather than seek psychiatric help, making this case tragically representative.
The director originally intended to confront his parents, but the camera's presence changed family dynamics unpredictably—becoming both witness and participant in the tragedy.
JP
