Soft Leaves

After her father is involved in a serious accident, 11-year-old Yuna’s life is turned upside down. Reunited with her mother, Yuna faces the possibility of a drastic change, which she refuses to face. Miwako Van Weyenberg’s debut feature is a tender and heartfelt coming-of-age drama.

Yuna’s parents separated when she was young. Her mother returned to Japan to remarry and start a new family, leaving her in Belgium with her father. Years later, a sudden accident leaves him in a coma, prompting her mother’s return, this time with a half-sister Yuna barely knows. It’s more than Yuna can handle at first, but as her father shows signs of recovery, she is forced to confront her own feelings and navigate the complex ties of her fractured family.

Miwako Van Weyenberg’s feature debut, following the acclaim of her short Summer Rain (2017), is a restrained and richly textured exploration of family bonds. Soft Leaves examines the emotional undercurrents that bind – or estrange – its characters, as well as the cultural and emotional gap between Yuna’s Belgian upbringing and the life her estranged mother and half-sibling bring with them. The father’s accident and recovery frame the narrative, but the film’s heart lies in the delicate, unspoken exchanges that arise in moments of connection, absence, and rediscovery. Van Weyenberg’s patient storytelling allows beauty to emerge in the quiet rhythms of daily life, as she crafts an intimate portrait of belonging shaped by family ties and cultural dissonance. Soft Leaves is a reminder that healing often begins in the smallest of gestures.

– Vanja Kaludjercic

Trailer

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