THE MOURNING FOREST

Shigeki lives in a retirement home. He is looked after by a friendly caregiver, Machiko. They don’t know that they share a painful secret: the loss of a dear one. After an accident during a drive in the country, they end up embarking on an exhausting and enlightening two-day journey in the forest.

From the luminous Japanese director Naomi Kawase comes this gentle yet wholly absorbing look at the passage through grief and the bonds that unite us. The natural world, human emotions: both are portrayed with a deceptively low-key approach that lets them shimmer with intensity.