The Wind Will Carry Us

The Wind Will Carry Us won both the critics' and the jury award at the Venice Film Festival. An enigmatic, poetic and subtle film in its treatment of the theme of death, whilst still being visually striking, colourful and filled with absurd humour. Everyday life becomes extraordinary through Kiarostami’s eyes.

The film follows a director and his crew, pretending to be engineers, on their arrival at a small village. He is there to film the funeral of an old woman, who is on her deathbed. He drinks tea with people, participates in conversations, follows their everyday rituals, all whilst trying to revive his mobile phone. On account of Kiarostami’s investigative lens and documentary style, The Wind Will Carry Us has a unique, authentic and intimate quality. The film marks a distinction in the director’s filmography: he develops a focus on female characters, a quality he persued in ABC Africa and Ten.

Abbas Kiarostami is one of Iran’s most famous film directors, who passed away earlier this year. Close-Up from 1990, Taste of Cherry and Certified Copy (2010) are some of his most famous films. Kiarostami has a reputation for using child protagonists, and creates highly realistic narratives with a good portion of humour.