The Wind Will Carry Us

Behzad Dourami plays an engineer who arrives with a film crew in an isolated Iranian village high in the mountains. It is not made clear why the men from the city have arrived in the village, except that they seem very interested in the illness and death throes of an old woman. A young boy escorts the men around his home and the engineer becomes familiar with both the landscape and personages of this small rural community. Kiarostami’s films utilise realist conventions - non-actors, real sound and location - to create highly personal and philosophical works that examine the broad existential and theological questions of human life. Whereas the urban men at the beginning of the film are cynical and disparaging of the traditional lifestyle and values of the villagers, what the engineer discovers is that the timeless ethical codes of the village are well suited to dealing with the fundamental issues of life and death. He also discovers that beneath the veneer of stability and order in the village, chaos and change also have their place. Enriched by Mahaoud Kalar’s ravishing cinematography, “The Wind Will Carry Us” is an important addition to Kiarostami’s oeuvre as one of the foremost spiritual and philosophical of contemporary directors. In Farsi with English subtitles. (Awards: Winner of the Grand Jury Prize at the 1999 Venice Film Festival)