World premiere
The Brothers Kitaura
Sigmund Freud would have loved this dark, hilarious Japanese comedy about father-killing.
Critics’ Picks closing film “The Brothers Kitaura” is, like our opening film, a dark comedy about death. In this case though, it’s not about killing yourself but killing your father. 40-year-old Sota Kitaura lives at home with his father. During a fight, Sota accidentally kills his father. Not knowing what to do, he calls his younger brother Akira for help and what ensues is perfect chaos with many references to Hitchcock’s funniest film “The Trouble with Harry” (1955). As if a dead father was not enough, Akira ends up also killing Uncle Daisuke.
We all know that, according to Sigmund Freud, the death of the father is the birth of culture. This brilliant comedy – which goes even further when the brother kills the uncle – proves that two are better than one.
Nikolai Nikitin
Masaki Tsujino (1968) is a Japanese director and writer. After a career as a musician, he co-founded the theater group “Sunny Side Walker” in 2003. In 2008, he established the theatrical and video production unit “Hybrid Jumbers.” In 2011, he began studying video production at ENBU Seminar. He made his commercial filmmaking debut as a director in the DVD anthology film “Kiki Kaikaitan Samenai Akumu no Monogatari.” In 2020, his first feature film “Kappa no Onna” was released in theaters. In addition, he is prolific as a writer of plays, video and film work, and as a director.
Kappa no Onna (2020), Kitaurakyodai (The Brothers Kitaura, 2024)