The Mourning Forest

A filmmaker who divides her work between documentary and fiction, Naomi Kawase remains largely unknown and, thus far, undistributed in the UK. Her new film, which won the Grand Prix (the runner's up award) at this year's Cannes Film Festival, is her most accessible so far, something she's achieved without compromising her subtle style.

Much of the appeal of what is virtually a two-hander in human terms lies in the enveloping presence of the eponymous natural character itself - a lush, treacherous forest set in a mountainous landscape. It's within this world that Machiko (Machiko Ono), a young female caregiver, and Shigeki (Shigeki Uda), an old man affected with dementia, find themselves stranded when a birthday trip into the tranquil countryside goes awry. Both have lost loved ones and the deeper they penetrate the forest, the more their journey - unexpected and unplanned (at least by Machiko) - seems to offer the promise of healing personal wounds.

Although working in a hushed register with deceptively simple material, Kawase conjures a sense of primal awe by drawing us so close to her characters that we share fully in their experiences. A remarkable work of immersive, empathic art.

David Cox