C.W. Winter and Anders Edström’s THE WORKS AND DAYS (OF TAYOKO SHIOJIRI IN THE SHIOTANI BASIN) is an astonishing meditation on aging, mortality, grief, and the simple things that can help us as we move on and begin to heal. We, the viewer, are invited to enter into this rural Japanese community, to hear the stories of family members, to sit with Tayoko Shiojiri during the final year of her husband’s life – to bear witness and respond with the same empathy that the filmmakers display. At eight hours in length, the film is precisely attuned to the rhythms of the day (routines we come to know so well over the course of the film), the changes in season on the ever-shifting landscape with which we grow ever more familiar, and the cycles of the year and the way it brings family and friends in and out of the narrative as naturally as our own friends and family come in and out of our lives. The film is suffused with incredible images, capturing the subtle shifts of light that occur during the day and the small, incidental details in the foreground as characters carry on lengthy monologues in the background. Dense soundscapes orient us to the location and help us find our bearings as the film carries us over the course one year. While the film is a work of fiction, it’s grounded in real events that happened to the performers. The filmmakers are so embedded in the community that they become part of the film, and the performers become integral to the filmmaking process. This is such a compelling and captivating work that, while the duration is vital to the experience, you’re never left feeling burdened by the film’s eight hours. It’s a monumental work of cinematic empathy that will have you eager to revisit this quiet village, continue peeling back the film’s layers, and sit with its reflections on our mortality and our place in this world.