Le tombeau des lucioles – Blu-ray

Japan, 1945. The country is on the verge of surrender. Every day, American planes drop bombs from the sky and set entire areas on fire. In the inferno of such an attack, fourteen-year-old Seita and four-year-old Setsuko lose their mother. Without their father, who is in the Navy and from whom they haven't heard for a long time, the children are suddenly on their own. Their aunt, with whom they initially stay, is anything but welcome about the additional hungry mouths in the prevailing famine. So the siblings move into an abandoned bunker and try to survive there on their own. Despite all the suffering, Seita does everything he can to offer his little sister as carefree a childhood as possible and the two actually spend a few happy weeks. But the terrible reality of the relentless war soon catches up with them both... This film, produced by Ghibli (including “Spirited Away”) and based on a semi-autobiographical novella by Akiyuki Nosaka, is touching and shocking at the same time. It shows dramatically how children are the most innocent victims of war. Rating: Particularly valuable!