Sachiko MIYASE

Director / Screenwriter

Title

"Portrait of Absence"

Format / Genre

Format: Feature Film | 115 min (approx.) | Japan-Europe Co-production
Genre: Drama / Road Movie

Logline

When a middle-aged woman learns that her best friend has gone missing in Hungary, she sets out across borders with two estranged friends to find her. As their search deepens, it draws them into something harder to face: the lives they gave up, the truths they buried, and the cost of having looked away.

Concept

A cross-border road movie about truth, memory, and the images we choose to believe. Set between Hungary and Slovakia, the film follows three women searching for a missing friend, as they confront the lives they have chosen - and the ones they left behind.

Profile

She is a Tokyo-based director and screenwriter with over 20 years of experience across development, production, and distribution. Her roles have spanned assistant director, casting, and producer, and she has been involved in international co-productions with partners in the Philippines, the United States, the Middle East, and the United Kingdom.

Her screenplays have received recognition at the Filmex Screenplay Award and the Kodansha Manga Script Award. Her work spans arthouse and genre cinema, with a consistent focus on social realism and those often rendered invisible. She founded the creative team ARRDEP, addressing labor and gender issues in the industry. Her short film MILK LADY has screened and won awards at international film festivals.

She is currently developing Portrait of Absence as a Japan-Europe co-production and is seeking European co-production partners.

A phone call she did not answer. The regret stayed. Now in her forties, she finds herself drawn to the weight of small decisions - and to the women who carry them in silence. This film is her attempt to finally pick up.