A Summer Family (2010)

Genres - Drama  |   Run Time - 78 min.  |   Countries - United States  |   MPAA Rating - NR
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Synopsis by Mark Deming

Iwana Masaki directed this visually inventive study of art, relationships and the dividing line between sanity and madness. Kamimura (Masaki Iwana) is a veteran Japanese experimental dancer and choreographer who is married to Akiko (Yumiko Yoshioka), a beautiful woman fifteen years his junior. Kamimura also has a younger mistress, Yuzuko (Moeno Wakamatsu); Akiko is fully aware of this arrangement, and is friendly with Yuzuko. Kamimura lives in Normandy in Northern France, and an international dance festival is scheduled to take place near his estate; Akiko, who divides her time between France and Japan, returns from Tokyo in time for the big event, while Yuzuko opts to spend the summer in New York City. As Kamimura juggles his relationships while helping to keep the festival running smoothly, Akiko spends much of her free time with her eight-year-old daughter Mayu. However, since no one else can see or hear Mayu besides Akiko, is she a real girl or a product of her increasingly overtaxed psyche? Full of surreal and powerfully sexual images, Natsu No Kazoku (aka A Summer Family) was an official selection at the 2010 Rotterdam International Film Festival.