A Spanish director is bringing a distinctly Japanese story to the screen with “ Konbini ,” a humanistic drama about an elderly man who deliberately shoplifts to get arrested and the convenience store worker who derails his plan.

The project, selected for the Tokyo Gap-Financing Market , follows Kisayo, a struggling sound artist working night shifts at a Tokyo convenience store, who thwarts an old man’s blatant attempt to get himself jailed through shoplifting. An unlikely friendship forms between the two, bridging their very different worlds.

Director Pedro Collantes (Venice selection “The Art of Return”) was drawn to the material after learning about a disturbing trend in Japan: an increasing number of elderly people committing petty crimes with the goal of imprisonment. “What kind

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