Totto-chan, the Little Girl at the Window - MADOGIWA NO TOTTO-CHAN

Pitch

In Tokyo, in the early 1940s, Tetsuko, whom everyone calls Totto-Chan, is a lively little girl. She gives her schoolteacher a hard time, and ends up being expelled. Her parents decide to send her to Tomoe, a school unlike all others where old train carriages are used as classrooms. The headmaster concentrates on developing the independence and creativity of the children. As Japan plunges into war, Totto-chan is going to find out that the smallest experiences in life are more important than lessons.

“This is a work which brings up fundamental themes in a simple way: life and death, war and peace, compassion and discrimination ; all in a fresh, joyful tone suitable for children, and understandable in countries everywhere. I tried to keep this freshness intact in the film, so as to spread it all over the world and bring a little light and joy.” Yakuwa Shinnosuke