The Works and Days (of Tayoko Shiojiri in the Shiotani Basin) (Teil 1)

Set in the Shiotani Basin, a short train ride from Kyoto, the long- awaited return of C.W. Winter and Anders Edström, a decade following THE ANCHORAGE, patiently accompanies Shiojiri Tayoko over five seasons in her small village of 47 predominantly elderly people. Though it’s equally concerned with observations of nature and the simple way that life itself is lived, partway through the film a narrative gradually asserts itself, in the worsening sickness of Tayoko’s husband, Junji – though the presence of death is never far from the surface, whether seen through periodic visits to gravesites, fatal snakebite, the hunting of animals for food, or a fantastical story (told via subtitles) of a soldier’s return home from WWII to commune with the corpse of his deceased father. The film also illustrates the death of a place and its way of life, a factor of population displacement, and the environmental destruction that’s irreversibly changing the relationship between the villagers and nature. Time, indeed, is of the essence, lasting 480 minutes. But, besides its length, it has little in common with “slow cinema,” mainly due to Winter’s extremely precise editing and the immersive approach and attention to detail and the constant attention to commonplace beauty. (Mark Peranson)

The Works and Days is a single film with a 480-minute (8-hour) run time. On the 25th of October, the film will play in its entirety with 3 intermissions: two 15-minute intermissions at roughly 1/4 and 3/4 of the way through the film and a longer lunch intermission at roughly halfway through. This makes for a total viewing experience of roughly 9 1/2 hours.

In the presence of C.W. Winter and Anders Edström.

C.W. Winter, Anders Edström: ONE PLUS ONE 2 (2003), THE ANCHORAGE (2009)