The new offering from Oscar-winner Pawel Pawlikowski takes place in 1949, just as the novelist Thomas Mann returns to Germany from exile, having opposed Hitler’s regime.

This double bill brings together two outliers from Imamura’s time as a director-for-hire for Nikkatsu, a minor comedy centred upon a henpecked husband's extra-marital affair and a profoundly tender exploration of the attempts of four orphaned children to make their way in the world, in the face of seemingly insurmountable odds.

A story of two married couples – a laid-off worker and his spouse and a documentary filmmaker and her spouse – crossing paths to film a documentary and facing their different lives and hidden desires.