“I had dreams for the future. Sometimes I feel a little better, but the negative feelings never go away: the emptiness sticks to me. I wonder what the point of it all is.” One of the great paradoxes of our hyperconnected modern world is that social relationships and human interaction are on the decline. It is this very international topic of individual torment hidden in the darkness of megacities that Danish documentary filmmaker Kaspar Astrup Schröder (already acclaimed for Rent a Family Inc. [+leggi anche:
trailer
scheda film], among others) has decided to bring to light, like a public health whistleblower, with Dear Tomorrow [+leggi anche:
intervista: Kaspar Astrup Schröder
scheda film], which has been screened at SXSW, Visions du Réel and CPH:DOX, nominated for the Robert 2026 award for best documentary and in international competition this week at FIPADOC. To do so, the filmmaker chose a country he knows very well (he has shot four films there) and which is highly representative of this wave of social isolation, with its corollary of rising suicide rates: Japan. A country where the phenomenon has taken on acute proportions, because the local culture glorifies endurance and stigmatises the expression of weakness.

Of Tokyo's 37 million inhabitants, 40% live alone and 37% suffer from loneliness. Among them are two forty-somethings, Masado, a trader, and Shoko, who works as a shop assistant. Both are broken by years of loneliness, with no family and no one to confide in, and end up contacting "A Place For You" - an instant messaging service founded by the young, humanist and highly proactive Kozi, a 24-hour chat service that struggles to stem the immense tide of individual distress, giving priority to suicide risks and victims of domestic abuse and violence. All this is happening in a societal environment where technological innovations exacerbate isolation (restaurants with robot waiters, solo karaoke, shopping without human contact with a cashier, etc.). How can the trend be reversed? At the national level, Japan is creating a Ministry of Loneliness to spread the message that ‘there is nothing wrong with asking for help’. But will Masado and Shoko manage to pull through? The rediscovery of friendship, Buddhism, animals (fish, an owl), music: paths to rebirth will open up.

Extremely moving thanks to its intimate shooting approach (the director frames the shots himself) in capturing the testimonies of its two protagonists as they struggle with profound psychological difficulties, Dear Tomorrow provides a profound and enlightening overview of a global problem that is affecting more and more young people in particular. Filming the bustling metropolis and its public transport system as a counterpoint, accompanied by Jon Ekstrand's beautiful atmospheric music, Kaspar Astrup Schröder delivers an invaluable documentary that sends a clear message: “You are not alone.”

Dear Tomorrow was produced by Danish production company Good Company Pictures and co-produced by Sweden's Momento Film and Japan’s Moolin Productions. French company CAT&Docs handles international sales.