Shoplifters, a Japanese movie nominated for Best Foreign Language Film of the Year in the 2019 Oscars, and the 2018 winner of the Palme d’Or at Cannes, will be shown by the Quesnel Film Club this week, on Feb. 7 at the Carib Theatre.
Shoplifters is the club’s second film of the winter season, following a sold out showing of The Wife mid-January.
The film follows the life of a family of shoplifters, who steal to survive and abide by their own moral code to do so. Their lives change when a young girl follows them home and the family takes her in after realizing she came from an abusive home.
Scoring 99 percent on the Tomatometer on Rotten Tomatoes and earning an Oscar nod, Shoplifters is a film to see.
Maureen Murray of the film society says the winter lineup was chosen by a group of a half dozen film lovers, who each voted on their top four films. From their, they took the top seven (from a list of more than 30) and passed those on to the owner of the Carib Theatre, who is from Toronto.
From there, he decides if he wants to play any of them at the theatre himself (or if they might negatively affect the sales of a different film he’ll be showing). He also provides the film club with dates that they can rent out the theatre to show the films, without costing The Carib any profits.
After they hear from the owner, they reach out to the Toronto circuit — where they get the films — and see which dates work best for which films.
Although it can be difficult to predict which films will end up on the final list, Murray says she likes for there to be a variety. “At least one documentary, at least one subtitled foreign film, hopefully one that might get nominated, as Shoplifters has, for an academy award.”
She adds that award winning movies are difficult to predict, as many award nominations haven’t even been released by the time they vote on which movies will be included in the winter season.
Doors open at the Carib at 6 p.m. on Thursday, Feb. 7, and Shoplifters will begin at 6:30 p.m.
Bel Canto will be shown on Feb. 28 and Anthropocene: The Human Epoch will be shown on March 28, both as part of the film club’s winter lineup.