The Nobel-prize winning novelist Kazuo Ishiguro is in San Sebastián to discuss the film Living that he has written the script for, adapted from the 1952 Japanese film Ikiru directed by Akira Kurosawa. He revealed that the original film made a huge impact on him when he was young and that its message had stayed with him: a small life could be perfectly fulfilling. “I never thought I’d win a Nobel prize or visit festivals like this one. I thought I’d have a small life, so I felt this same vision could speak to young people today, working long hours in a late capitalistic world which they can’t see any sense to.”

However, he didn’t want to see a simple remake; he wanted Ikiru to be married to questions about Englishness and to a vision of post-war Britain with its understatement, protective humour and stoicism, and a sense of dignity provided by being part of a large nation.