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"The Ancient Woods" is a gorgeous and unusual documentary that takes viewers into an old-growth forest in Lithuania.

If you're not already schooled in the wildlife of the area, you won't know what type of bird or snake you're looking at — director and cinematographer Mindaugas Survila doesn't provide any captions or narration. That's the "gorgeous" and "unusual" part.

It's not strictly "slow TV," in the sense of those seven-hour documentaries of a train ride in Europe, but it assumes the quiet but bustling rhythm of its landscape.

The only human presence comes from a farmer who makes two brief appearances. Outside of that, Survila throws viewers into an immersive experience with a rhythm of its own as birds, insects, rodents, snakes and deer feed, flee and fight, accompanied only by the silence of the woods itself. There's no score to attach human emotions to what you're seeing.