Family Romance, LLC

Drama • NR • Directed by: Werner Herzog • 89 minutes

Love is a business in Family Romance, LLC, the latest film from the legendary Werner Herzog (Aguirre, The Wrath of God; Cave of Forgotten Dreams). Family Romance is a Tokyo-based company that offers the perfect stand-ins for absent family, friends or admirers – available to rent for any occasion. In a fictionalised take on this real-life company, Herzog follows founder Yuichi Ishii as he helps his clients make their dreams come true. But when the mother of 12-year-old Mahiro hires Ishii to impersonate her missing ex-husband, the line between performance and reality threatens to blur. Beguiling and utterly unique, Family Romance, LLC invites us to question the lies we tell ourselves and the different roles we are all forced to play. Shot by Herzog himself, the film blends fiction storytelling with documentary-style visuals for a striking meditation on truth and artifice in the age of loneliness.