The bereavement road trip is a niche sub-genre but a rewarding one. Patrick Dickinson’s pensive, beautifully acted Japanese and English-language drama Cottontail has much in common with 2019’s John Hawkes-starring End of Sentence: both feature an estranged father and son forced together by the death of the woman who was the only thing they had in common.
In this case, the cantankerous, recklessly independent widower is Kenzaburo, played by the remarkable Japanese actor Lily Franky (Shoplifters) in a performance that’s a masterclass in understated anguish. Kenzaburo lost his wife to dementia before she lost her life, but, a lifelong fan of Beatrix Potter, she made him promise to take her ashes from Tokyo to the shores of Windermere in Cumbria. A delicate gem of a film, with a powerhouse turn from Franky.
In UK and Irish cinemas
