When Marnie Was There (Omoide no Mānī)
Special Screening - Ajyal Youth Film Festival 2015
Hiromasa Yonebayashi / Feature Narrative / Japan / 2014 / 103 min / Colour / DCP2K / In Japanese / Arabic, English subtitles / MENA Premiere
Rated: Parental guidance is advised for viewers under the age of 13. Individuals under the age of 13 are not admitted into cinemas unless accompanied by an individual aged 18 or older.
Synopsis
Anna is 12 years old and unhappy. A quiet and introverted orphan, she spends her days drawing in her sketchbook, lost in her troubled thoughts. One day at school, she suffers a serious asthma attack. Concerned for her wellbeing, her foster parents send her to spend the summer in the country with her boisterous but loving aunt and uncle. Anna soon finds solace in the beauty of the marshlands, and is drawn to an old mansion, despite her uncle’s warnings to stay away because of ghosts.
One night, after a fight with the local kids, Anna flees to the mansion where she meets a mysterious blonde girl named Marnie. Sharing midnight rowboat rides, dancing under the stars and picking flowers in the forest, the girls become fast friends. But is Marnie real or merely a figment of Anna’s vivid imagination? As Anna digs deeper into the question of who Marnie really is, she unearths answers about her own past.
One of the last films to be released by the internationally renowned Studio Ghibli, ‘When Marnie Was There’ is a moving tale of friendship, family and the quest for self-acceptance.
Credits
- Director
- Hiromasa Yonebayashi
- Screenwriter
- Keiko Niwa, Masashi Andō, Hiromasa Yonebayashi
- Producer
- Yoshiaki Nishimura, Toshio Suzuki
- Editor
- Rie Matsubara
- Music
- Takatsugu Muramatsu
- Cinematographer
- Atsushi Okuo
- Sales Company
- Wild Bunch
- Production Company
- Studio Ghibli
- Distributor
- Front Row Filmed Entertainment
- Cast
- Sara Takatsuki, Kasumi Arimura