Grave of the Fireflies

## Grave of the Fireflies *Grave of the Fireflies* (*Hotaru no Haka*) is widely regarded as one of the greatest anti-war films ever made — a devastating, heartbreaking account of two siblings struggling to survive in the final months of World War II. Fourteen-year-old Seita and his four-year-old sister Setsuko are orphaned when a firebombing kills their mother. Refusing to endure their unsympathetic aunt's mistreatment, they leave to live alone in an abandoned bomb shelter. As food grows scarcer and Setsuko weakens from malnutrition, Seita desperately tries to provide for her. Based on a semi-autobiographical story by Akiyuki Nosaka, the film opens with Seita's death, then unfolds in tragic retrospect. Directed by Isao Takahata, it is a shattering indictment of war's toll on the innocent.