Event: A Silent Voice screening as part of Japan Foundation Touring Film Programme

The Japan Foundation Touring Film Programme is back for another year of bringing all the wonders of Japanese cinema to the UK. For 2017, their top billing for the anime fandom is Kyoto Animation’s gorgeous tale of forgiveness and redemption A Silent Voice. The Naoko Yamada-directed picture will screen alongside several live-action movies, all of which reflect the foundation’s chosen theme of “desires, hopes and impulses”.

The Japan Foundation  describe their own impulses behind the theme of this year’s tour:

Taking inspiration from Charlie Chaplin’s famous quote “Life is a desire, not a meaning”, the Japan Foundation Touring Film Programme 2017 features an all-encompassing introduction to Japanese cinema through the prism of “desires, hopes and impulses”. Presenting films by established and up-and-coming directors, animation, documentary and classics, this year’s programme promises to not only entertain but also provide a vivid insight into what drives human action.

For Shoya, discovering what drives him is the key to the story of A Silent Voice. When a new girl, Shoka, joins his elementary school class, she becomes a target for bullying because she is deaf. Shoya is drawn into devising new torments for her with his friends, until they push it too far and Shoko leaves the school. Six years later, they cross paths again. Shoya now feels differently, but can he ever make up for his mistakes?

The full list of screening films and their descriptions can be found on the programme’s website. The event begins in London on February 3rd and runs until March 29th, with all the stops on the tour listed as follows:

February 3rd-9th

ICA, London (tickets available here)
Box office: 020 7930 3647
www.ica.org.uk
The Mall, London, SW1Y 5AH

February 4th-20th

Watershed, Bristol
Box office: 0117 927 5100
www.watershed.co.uk
1 Canon’s Road, Harbourside, Bristol, BS1 5TX

February 5th – March 1st

HOME, Manchester
Box office: 0161 200 1500
homemcr.org
2 Tony Wilson Place, Manchester, M15 4FN

February 5th – March 26th

Queen’s Film Theatre, Belfast
www.queensfilmtheatre.com
20 University Square, Belfast, BT7 1PA

February 7th – March 27th

Showroom Cinema, Sheffield
Box office: 0114 275 7727
www.showroomworkstation.org.uk
Paternoster Row, Sheffield, S1 2BX