Mattie Do’s THE LONG WALK is all about The Old Man (Yannawoutthi Chanthalungsy). Set some time in the future, The Old Man lives a relatively secluded life. His main source of company is the spirit of a woman long deceased. She never ages, and she never speaks…but she is with him constantly. The Old Man eventually comes across a young boy living nearby who witnessed a car accident. The Old Man takes it upon himself to help the boy and his family as best he can…as though he felt connected.

Watching Yannawoutthi Chanthalungsy in this film is watching the face of a man who has grown-up with darkness. There is a sad patience to his very being, a sense that he isn’t living his life for himself. He is methodical in every thing he does, whether it is making a cup of tea, or simply taking a pull from his vaporizer. In many ways, one hopes that we are never dealt the hand his character has been dealt….but consider how he embodies it with such grace, maybe it’s not such a bad hand after all?

There is much made in THE LONG WALK about preparing a body for a proper burial. We hear many of the gathered speak of ensuring that measures are taken, respects are paid, rituals are carried out, all in the name of the soul understanding that the time has come to let go. Perhaps the inverse is true, perhaps it is us who need to complete these steps. Something in us feels like we didn’t do everything we could to keep them alive…so the least we can do is mark their passing properly.

THE LONG WALK is a difficult film to describe, which is a big part of what makes it work. It dabbles into the supernatural, but never feels the need to draw a diagram of why and how things are happening. The result is something beautifully emblematic of the grieving process; the way we take on the weight of the souls of the departed. What those who haven’t lost anyone yet may believe is that eventually these spirits will stop walking beside them, content to go on to whatever’s next and let us live our own lives in peace. The truth – as anyone who has lost someone important will tell you – is that these spirits never leave. They’ll lag behind now and then, but they are always within sight.