A small village's revered doctor vanishes one day without a word, leaving the villagers to sort through the lies told in the name of compassion, in this poignant drama from the rising young Japanese director Miwa Nishikawa, a protégée of Hirokazu Kore-eda. A kindhearted country doctor is viewed as a savior by his small-town patients, until he decides to help an elderly female patient keep her illness hidden from her family. Soon even his own secrets start to slowly unravel, and force everyone to question whether a lie is truly a sin, if told in the spirit of kindness. In her earlier films, Wild Berries and Sway, Nishikawa demonstrated a perceptive eye for the gray realms of the human soul, neither all good nor all evil; with Dear Doctor, she transforms what begins as a feel-good comedy (the film stars popular Japanese comedian Tsurube Shofukutei) into a profound, provocative examination of ethics, humanity, and the truths that can be found even in lies.