World Premiere

“The ‘sukebe stool’ that is used in soaplands to wash bodies was actually invented as a home care tool.” This anecdote, and experiences with having a grandmother with dementia, was director OKAZAKI’s inspiration for a film featuring a novel spin on a carer for the elderly.

Although it pays for her glamorous lifestyle, Kana keeps her job washing bodies in a Tokyo soapland quiet and has questions about her future. That job comes in handy when she is asked to care for her long-forgotten grandmother Kie. After initial struggles, Kana’s biggest frustration is that Kie’s dementia means she forgets her own granddaughter after every visit but Kana soon realises that Kie is someone she can confide in about her life and resolves to learn more about the elderly woman that she had forgotten about while working out what bugs her.

Wash Away is a smart and slickly-made character drama done through synthesising two unlikely sources and applying a serious message of how loneliness can afflict people and how genuinely connecting with others can overcome that. [Jason MAHER]