"In this way, fiction comes into being. It comes from inventing a feeling and developing it. And my greatest pain is in relation to the difficulty in doing this. It's as if imagining and thinking leave much still to be done and time is short, and the feeling grows that the great work hasn't been achieved."

The lengthy quotation above far better explains what this film is about than any of the words I'll write now. Truthfully, I'm still wrapping…

"For your child who has come home."

What a sensorily rich experience. All films use images and sound to evoke emotion, but August at Akiko's feels like a special kind of alchemy. The loud, bold score breaks through the thick ambient sounds and delicate images, creating a sense of pulsing energy in this quiet world. It's easy to tell that this was made with a rather humble budget, but the beauty of the locations are so well captured that the…