The Wind Will Carry Us
by Abbas Kiarostami
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DVD Cover Information
Actor: Bahman Ghobadi, Behzad Dorani, Noghre Asadi, Roushan Karam Elmi, Shahpour GhobadiDirector: Abbas Kiarostami
Cinematographer: Mahmoud Kalari
Editor: Abbas Kiarostami
Producer: Abbas Kiarostami
Writer: Abbas Kiarostami
Producer: Marin Karmitz
DVD: Region Code 1
Audio: English (Unknown); English (Original Language)
Format: Color, DVD, NTSC, Widescreen
Picture Format: 1.78:1
Running Time: 118 minutes
Published: 1999
DVD Release Date: 2002-09-17
Audience Rating: NR (Not Rated)
Studio: New Yorker Video
Movie Reviews of The Wind Will Carry Us
Movie Review: of arabs and iranians. and a review of the film too.
Summary: 5 Stars
First, this film does not give an insight into the Arab world. while there are a multiplicity of possible interpretations, this simply is not one of them because the above interpretation results on a complete misunderstanding. This movie is set in iran. it is about rural iranians interactions with an outside more westernized iranian. iranians, it is true, live in the same general part of the world as arabs. however, they are not arabs. I repeat again to ward off this rather highly insulting practice of lumping together all brown people in one region into the generic and false term 'arab'. an arab is someone that lives in say, saudie arabia, iraq, pakistan (excluding afghanis that may live there). iranians, and also their close cousins the afghanis, are of a seperate background than the rest of the muslim world. this is mere fact. it is indisputable. iranians are not arabs. saying they are is like calling all white folk in the west germans, or americans, or north americans. or like calling someone chinese because they live in say, japan or some other 'eastern' (i.e., far eastern) country. Second, it is not true that all iranians are muslims. just because a film takes place in predominantly muslim country does not make it any more or less a film about muslims than does the fact that trainspotting was made in the west suggest it is a film of and by and about catholics and protestants. it is not. it is racist to suggest otherwise. Kiarostamis characters generally are not all that religious. they may indulge in poetry and certain mystical traditions, but for the most part the main characters in his film are not muslim, indeed, they often reject the main values of the society around them. assuming then that this movie is an insight into those arab muslims is a double insult.
Now that i've dispensed with all the claptrap, let us move on to the actual movie. here is my take on it.
Kiarostami underdetermines his films because he believes the audience will thus be drawn nearer to interpreting it themselves in many possible ways. the idea is that a movie is borne out of an interaction between audience and movie, and that the meaning does not just reside in the movie. however, he is no formalist. he does this not because it is postmodern or in fashion or whatnot, rather, he does it simply because he wants to create open-ended movies that draw the audience near. This does not work for a large portion of the audience because they expect other things for a movie. that is fair, i recommend such people do not watch kiarostami movies as it would just be boring for them. However, there is a target audience that appreciates this kind of film because the movie decidedly does not manipulate you or draw high handed moral messages. it makes a movie, presents you with an underdetermined situation with underdetermined meaning, tries to do so in a faithful nondramatic nonexaggeraated way, and in so doing allows the viewer to see for themselves what the ordinary drama is in life, and how it connects with deeper philosophical, lyrical, and poetic meanings. However, it is up to the audience to do this. Audiences that do not want to do this should not watch these movies. And, they should not see the movie as a failure because it did not conform to their biased narrow expectations of what a film is supposed to be. Let us just say some films appeal to certain audiences and some to others. A movie should be judged more internally on its own terms rather than on whether or not it is in accord with the levelled and levelling pop cultural understanding of what a film is suppossed to be and what an audience is supposed to be.
Summary of The Wind Will Carry Us
The movies of Iranian director Abbas Kiarostami defy the expectations of anyone raised on Hollywood or even European films. The Wind Will Carry Us, for example, is about a filmmaker who comes to a small village where an old woman is dying, hoping to document a harsh ritual of mourning practiced by the villagers. Unfortunately for him, the invalid clings to life, and he spends most of his time driving up and down a mountainside because his cell phone only gets good reception at the top. But while he waits and frets, around him the life of the village continues, and this vitality--captured in moments that seem like a diversion from the movie's supposed storyline--is fundamentally what The Wind Will Carry Us is about. What seems dull one moment will suddenly become a rich and subtle expression of human behavior. A strikingly different cinematic experience. --Bret FetzerSimilar DVD Movies
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