Block 5. Lessons of Adulthood

First graders in a Tokyo public elementary school are presented with a challenge for the final semester: to form an orchestra and perform “Ode to Joy” at a school ceremony. “Instruments of a Beating Heart” examines the Japanese educational system’s tenuous balance between self-sacrifice and personal growth as it teaches the next generation to become part of society.

An unidentified protagonist looks at old photographs from the family album. Scenes on the beach, on vacation. Scenes with his siblings on the couch. Innocent poses, laughter. In contrast, the narrator describes memories of his and his siblings' emotional and physical abuse at the hands of his mother. Gradually, the social and personal dynamics behind the system of violence are revealed, and the suffering of the victims, who oscillate between pain, guilt and grief lasting into adulthood, is described.

Iona, a girl who has been raised by two mother friends, narrates her adolescence through her life diaries marked by her father’s abandonment, and her desires. The diaries are the bridge to find those answers that have always accompanied her.

“Hey, let’s go on a diet together.” As kids in a small Quebec town, Eisha and Seema were more than sisters, they were soul mates, and a joint diet offered a shared sense of purpose. But their carefree project would take a dark turn, pushing Eisha to the very brink of death.  Consumed by anorexia, she found herself battling her own fragile body—stranded between childhood and adulthood. Decades later, she revisits her past in an exquisitely crafted work of auto-ethnography, evoking her unusual youth with aching lyricism.

After a happy childhood in the countryside, Jacob – the filmmaker’s animated alter ego – and his parents move to a Chinese megalopolis. He becomes aware of his ethnicity through the racism he experiences at school. He decides to run away, risking ensuing isolation and solitude. A tender animated composition which evokes the pain of exile.

Seventeen-year-old Kamila is about to leave the youth education center. As the group's leader she has been like a mother figure to the younger girls. Now, they must find their own way and find hope in the world around them.