Bá
2016 · 14m · Brasil
Directed by Leandro Tadashi
Genres: coming-of-age, drama, family
Tones: contemplative, tender
Five-year-old Bruno's life is turned upside down when his Bá — from Bachan, grandmother in Japanese — is brought to live in his house, and he must cope with the changes she brings.
Picked by Zoe
The scouts
A tender multigenerational story about a kid adjusting to his grandmother moving in—exactly the kind of well-meaning premise that usually puts me to sleep, but Tadashi's refusal to sentimentalize the friction, his willingness to let Bruno's resentment breathe, actually gives this teeth.
The film sits comfortably in the lineage of intimate family portraiture—Kore-eda's influence is unmistakable—but what distinguishes it is the formal restraint: how Tadashi frames domestic space to make small moments of connection feel earned rather than inevitable, a discipline that recalls the best of contemporary Japanese cinema.
The entire film hinges on a single recurring visual choice—the way Tadashi shoots Bruno and Bá in the same frame but spatially apart, then gradually tightens that distance—and that patient compositional strategy transforms what could be a sentimental premise into something quietly devastating about how proximity becomes understanding.