Review | Toronto 2020: True Mothers movie review – moving adoption drama from Naomi Kawase
- Naomi Kawase draws impressively natural performances from Hiromi Nagasaku and Aju Makita, the former playing a woman who adopts the latter’s baby via an agency
- Part youth romance, part social documentary and part crime drama, True Mothers, adapted from a novel by Mizuki Tsujimura, could have been better scripted
3.5/5 stars
The lives of two mothers – one who gives birth, and another who adopts – converge in True Mothers, a quietly moving drama by Cannes favourite Naomi Kawase ( Radiance , An ), whose film made that festival’s official selection this year before the event was cancelled.
Screening this week as part of the Toronto International Film Festival, True Mothers stops short of delivering on the major conflicts it repeatedly teases, but is quite a showcase for the abilities of the two actresses in its leading roles.
Adapted from a 2015 novel by Mizuki Tsujimura, the film starts by telling the story of Satoko (Hiromi Nagasaku) and Kiyokazu (Arata Iura), a loving middle-class couple in Tokyo whose yearning for a child ends in heartbreak when the husband is found to be infertile. Their hope is rekindled when they chance upon Baby Baton, a non-profit adoption agency which pairs those who can’t raise their children with others who can’t have them, and promises full parental rights.
Six years after they adopt the infant son of shy 14-year-old schoolgirl Hikari (Aju Makita), however, a downtrodden young woman claiming to be the biological mother comes to their door to extort money. It is at this point that True Mothers turns to narrate the backstory of Hikari. A sorrowful coming-of-age tale peppered with adolescent impulses, life-affirming encounters and spectacular views of nature, this segment also allows writer-director Kawase to channel her poetic instincts.