On October 22, Klara and the Sun lands in Italian theaters, the film adaptation of the eponymous novel by Kazuo Ishiguro, Nobel Prize in Literature in 2017. At its core lies a meditation on love, friendship, and the sacrifices they entail, but also on what it truly means to be human…
What the Klara and the Sun novel is about
Published in 2021, in Italy by Einaudi with Susanna Basso’s translation, Klara e il Sole centers on Klara, an Artificial Friend powered by sunlight and programmed to keep company for children, in a future society where parents choose to “enhance” their offspring’s abilities and the role of being human seems increasingly redundant. In this setting, between science fiction and dystopia, Klara is chosen by the fourteen-year-old Josie, a lively and sensitive girl who is also afflicted by an illness.
Beside her, the Artificial Friend “learns” to love and to recognize feelings, observes the tense dynamics between Josie and her mother, in a society where every object must have a use and science may even seek a cure for death. And as the girl faces an increasingly challenging period, it is Klara who seeks a remedy and a solution, even at the cost of a profound sacrifice…
Kazuo Ishiguro’s other works
Born in Japan in 1954 and having moved with his family to the United Kingdom from a very young age, Ishiguro has long been one of the most acclaimed authors in English-language literature (and beyond). In 1989 he won the Booker Prize for the novel The Remains of the Day (Einaudi, translation by Maria Antonietta Saracino), in which butler Stevens contemplates his life, duties, and loyalties. In 1993, the book was adapted into a film with Anthony Hopkins and Emma Thompson.
While in 2005 (in Italy in 2006) he published Never Let Me Go. Presenting a narrative set in a distopian future, Ishiguro tells the lives of three young students at Hailsham, a boarding school in the English countryside. Between art, literature and friendship, Kathy, Tommy and Ruth live an existence pre-scripted by a mysterious higher authority. They gradually learn what their role is, what the school represents, and what it means to be a “donor” and an “attendant.” The book was adapted into a film in 2010 starring Carey Mulligan, Andrew Garfield, and Keira Knightley.
Klara e il Sole, il film e il trailer
And now we finally arrive at Klara and the Sun, the film due for release at the end of October. Written by Dahvi Waller and Taika Waititi, and directed by the latter (Oscar winner for Jojo Rabbit), it retraces the story of the android Klara, portrayed by Jenna Ortega, star of the Netflix series Wednesday, alongside Mia Tharia as Josie, and Amy Adams in the mother’s role. The cast also includes Natasha Lyonne, Steve Buscemi, and Aran Murphy.
