EXCLUSIVE: The director behind My Grandfather is a Nihonjin , an animation about the Japanese immigrant experience in Brazil , has said she did not want to lean too heavily into anime but forge her own unique blend of Japanese and South American style.

Speaking before its screening at Annecy , Celia Catunda revealed her desire to “create another style to make this film,” combining the Japanese animation tradition with Brazil to give the movie an entirely fresh flavor.

The film comes 30 years after a treaty of friendship was signed between Brazil and Japan in Paris and Brazil is now home to the largest Japanese community outside Japan, with an estimated 2 million people with Japanese descendants thought to be living there. The pic follows Noboru, a young boy from São Paolo

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