Hako no Naka no Hitsuji / Chłopiec z pudełka
2026, 126 min.

pre-premiere screening

Awards and selections: Cannes Film Festival 2026 – Official Competition
Director: Hirokazu Koreeda
Cast: Haruka Ayase, Daigo Yamamoto, Rimu Kuwaki, Nana Seino, Kan’ichirô Satô
Country: Japan

[IN-PERSON SCREENING]

Can you get back a child you have lost if their place is taken by a perfect technological copy?

In the near future, Otone and Kensuke are trying to rebuild their lives after the death of their seven-year-old son. Two years after the tragedy, they receive an extraordinary offer from a company called Rebirth: a humanoid robot arrives at their home, designed to look exactly like their deceased son, Kakeru. For Otone, its presence offers a chance to regain the intimacy she has lost, but Kensuke cannot accept the machine as his child. Hirokazu Koreeda turns to science fiction for the first time while remaining faithful to his central themes: family, loss, memory and love.

In the media:
«Koreeda’s film offers a new way of thinking about how we deal with grief.»
— Zachary Lee, TheWrap, read the full review

«A clunker of an ending does, admittedly, stand out.»
— Simon Abrams, RogerEbert.com, read the full review

Hirokazu Koreeda

Japanese director, screenwriter, editor and producer, and one of the most important contemporary filmmakers working with stories about family. He began his career making documentaries before gaining international recognition with films including “Nobody Knows, Like Father, Like Son” (2013), “Shoplifters” (2018) and “Monster” (2023). “Shoplifters” won the Palme d’Or at Cannes in 2018. Koreeda has presented his films eight times in the festival’s Official Competition.

Tags: grief, artificial intelligence, family, memory, technology