A naturalistic and close observation of child abandonment, resilience, adaptability and ultimately loss. Watching this film makes your heart ache. If Sissoko’s message in Bamako was “we are all responsible”, Koreeda in Nobody Knows deals with the reverse of the coin. What happens when children are left to fend for themselves? Unforced performances by the children, close observation of the decline and the fall. This is the very definition of harrowing.