FAMILY ROMANCE, LLC is the latest feature from Herzog (AGUIRRE, THE WRATH OF GOD; CAVE OF FORGOTTEN DREAMS). Receiving its premiere at the 2019 Cannes Film Festival, the film tells the story of a Tokyo-based company that offers the perfect stand-ins for absent family members, friends or admirers – available to rent for any occasion.

In a fictionalised take on this real-life company, Herzog follows founder Yuichi Ishii as he helps his clients make their dreams come true. But when the mother of 12-year-old Mahiro hires Ishii to impersonate her missing ex-husband, the line between performance and reality threatens to blur.

Shot by Herzog himself, the film blends fiction storytelling with documentary-style visuals for a striking meditation on truth and artifice in the age of loneliness.