Megumi Matsushita

Marco and his family live in Genoa, Italy, a poor town where many local Italians went to work overseas. Marco's mother, Anna, is among one of them. Initially, Anna keeps writing back home while working in Argentina, but one day, the letters stopped. The boy then decides to search for his mother. Despite the journey's difficulties, Marco heads off into Argentina's interior, to meet his mother. (imdb)

Akiko returns to her home village in Japan after seven years in South America, where she contracted AIDS from a blood transfusion. The town, thick with paranoia, is quick to ostracize the ailing Akiko. With only her best friend and her mom in her corner, Akiko suffers awful discrimination at school and at home.