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POLAN

By Kota NAKAMURA

ARTICLE FILMS - as SALES All rights

Documentary - Completed 2022

An elderly couple continues their routine even as they prepare for the closure of their bookshop, POLAN SHOBO.

Festivals
& Awards

pia 2022

TOKYO DOCUMENT 2022

Jeonju Int'l FF 2023

Cinema Fest

- Year of production
- 2022
- Genres
- Documentary, Art - Culture, First film
- Countries
- JAPAN
- Languages
- JAPANESE
- Budget
- 0.3 - 0.6 M$
- Duration
- 75 mn
- Director(s)
- Kota NAKAMURA
- Synopsis
- Located northwest of central Tokyo, Nerima-ku is a typical bed town with a population that only flows during rush hour. Polan is a small used bookstore in a secluded area a little far from the center of Nerima-ku, but it is bustling with customers of all tastes and has been in business for 35 years. The shy owner, Ishida and Chiseko Kyosuke couple, and Minami Yuki who has worked as a clerk since the store’s inception, tried to make Polan a cultural facility rather than just a bookstore, hosting concerts and readings to make it a local landmark. But they were unable to overcome the crisis of the coronavirus pandemic and eventually closed the store on February 7, 2021. This film documents a month from January 2021 to February, when the bookstore closed. Its slow-paced shot show the shutdown discount, the packing of stock, and the dismantling of bookshelves and other longstanding furniture. The moment that all books that used to fill the small bookstore are gone, and the bookshelves are being disassembled one by one, how it feels so forlorn…