‘In Their Traces’: An unflinching documentary about the survivors of sexual violence

Shigeru Kobayashi (right) follows the lives of three survivors of sexual violence in his new documentary “In Their Traces,” which was filmed over a span of nine years. | © KASAMA FILM

Nov 2, 2026

In documentaries, who’s telling the story can be just as important as the way it is told. Viewers coming without any prior knowledge to Shigeru Kobayashi’s “In Their Traces” might reasonably question if a veteran male director in his 70s is really the best person to be making a film about female survivors of sexual violence.

In the production notes, Kobayashi admits that he had similar misgivings himself. Yet the way in which he addresses them is part of what makes this documentary — which the director has said will be his last major work — so resonant.

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