Films by Kyoko Miyake

Germany 2013, 77 min
by Kyoko Miyake

My Automic Aunt tells an insightful and surprisingly funny story of a family adjusting to life after the tsunami. Kyoko Miyake revisits her Aunt Kuniko, who was forced to abandon her businesses and home following the disaster. She now lives aimlessly in temporary accommodation on the edge of the contaminated zone and is determined to return home as soon as possible. Miyake is puzzled as to why she and the family do not hold anger following the great upheaval. As the first year after the disaster unfolds, she unearths the uncomfortable past that prevents things being so clear cut. Through the attempts of the warm and indefatigable Aunt Kuniko to adapt at her ripe age, this deeply personal film explores notions of homeland, nuclear power and family love.

Germany 2011
by Kyoko Miyake

Every night under Hackney skies, mothers from faraway lands create a familiar space for their children by singing them lullabies, the same ones they heard as children. The film enters the intimate space between mother and child, and explores the dilemma she faces in sharing her sense of home with a child who is rooted in another country and culture. Do the lullabies bring them closer together, or accentuate the difference between them?