Belgian Cinema

Alex Heeney reviews Belgian filmmaker Guillaume Senez’s third feature film, A Missing Part screening in the TIFF Special Presentations section. The film is about a French man searching for his Japanese daughter in Tokyo after years of separation because joint custody isn’t possible.

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In Guillaume Senez’s film A Missing Part, French taxi driver Jay (Romain Duris) lives in Tokyo, where he is married to (but separated from) a woman he pays alimony to but whose whereabouts – and that of the daughter they share – are unknown. His Japanese wife effectively kidnapped his daughter when she was three, granting her full custody by Japanese law. He’s been searching for his daughter for eight years. Just as he plans to sell his house and return home to France, he gets a lead that could change his plans entirely.

This sensitively made feature from Senez is a character study about a father who isn’t allowed to be a father, an unjust system that won’t allow joint custody, and the people caught within it. Carefully observed, Senez finds moments of joy and grace in an often brutal world and asks what sacrifices a father would make to see his daughter – when long-term and short-term goals may be at loggerheads.

Listen to the podcast

Listen to the podcast on Bi-cultural daughters and their absent fathers at TIFF 2024 for a more detailed discussion of the film A Missing Part.

On the podcast, I discuss the films A Missing Part, Winter in Sokcho, and My Father’s Daughter.