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Wind Will Carry Us, The

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Wind Will Carry Us, The reviews
86
8.2 User Score:

Movie Info

Genre(s): Drama

Written by:

Directed by: Abbas Kiarostami

Release Date:
Theatrical: July 28, 2000
DVD: September 17, 2002

Running Time: 118 minutes, Color

Origin: Iran / France

Summary

RATING: Not rated

Starring Behzad Dourani

With a strange mission, a group of people from the city come to a small village in Iran. They are awaiting the death of a 100+ year old woman, while pretending to be communication engineers.

What The Critics Said

All critic scores are converted to a 100-point scale. If a critic does not indicate a score, we assign a score based on the general impression given by the text of the review. Learn more...

100

Seattle Post-Intelligencer Sean Axmaker

A celebration of the human spirit nothing short of sublime.

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100

San Francisco Examiner G. Allen Johnson

Kiarostami's genius is elusive. His films may be unknowable, but they are undeniably hypnotic, charismatic.

100

Village Voice J. Hoberman

To my mind, the greatest film by Iranian master Abbas Kiarostami.

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100

Christian Science Monitor David Sterritt

A full-fledged masterpiece.

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100

Chicago Tribune Michael Wilmington

A film poem of sometimes humbling beauty: a movie that opens up a new world to us - in the mountains of Iranian Kurdistan - with an enchanting freshness and austerity of vision.

93

Mr. Showbiz Michael Atkinson

The best film we'll see this year.

90

The New York Times Dana Stevens

Its effects seem more like those of a poem or a piece of music than a movie. Requires the reverent darkness and communal solitude of a theater.

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90

Variety Deborah Young

Takes the refined work of Iranian helmer Abbas Kiarostami up another notch to ever more metaphoric ground.

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90

Film.com David D'Arcy

Will test your powers of attention. The effort is worth every minute.

90

Time Richard Corliss

The rhythm of rural life has rarely seemed so lucid and luminous.

88

Philadelphia Inquirer Desmond Ryan

If you've had enough of the loony tunes coming from Florida, this piece of absurdist serio-comedy is the perfect picture.

88

New York Daily News Jami Bernard

A brilliant if slow-paced movie about one man's unwitting journey into adulthood.

88

Boston Globe Jay Carr

It's a meditation on life and death, but it's less somber and more light-handed, subtle, and mischievously funny.

80

LA Weekly Ella Taylor

"Nothing happening" is everything happening between the lines, in the gap created between what is unstated onscreen and what we bring to the story ourselves.

78

Austin Chronicle Marrit Ingman

No doubt some viewers could find fault with the slack pacing, though it's hardly inappropriate for a film that's fundamentally about emerging from frustration and stasis into a state of grace.

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70

Los Angeles Times Kevin Thomas

The impact of its finish has been dissipated by too much meandering along the way.

63

New York Post Jonathan Foreman

Poetic but tedious and all but plotless.

63

San Francisco Chronicle Edward Guthmann

Film is often too subtle and languorous for its own purposes: At times, it's close to soporific.

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60

TV Guide Ken Fox

On the surface, nothing really happens, but to call it a nonevent would be to miss the point entirely.

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What Our Users Said

The average user rating for this movie is 8.2 (out of 10) based on 10 User Votes

Note: User votes are NOT included in the Metascore calculation.

Reza T. gave it a10:
This is by far the best Kiarostami`s film. Watching it is an amazing journey to human soul.

Liz D. gave it a9:
An awesome film. and the "engineer" appears as a good guy--who is really an assassin.

Naomi H gave it a6:
I have to admit, this was a very difficult film for me to sit through. I happen to be one that loves slow, beautiful movies. I stand up to criticism from friends and family who think foreign films are boring and plotless. I don't want to give this a poor review, I just want people to be aware that not everyone has the right sensibilities to enjoy this film. I thought I did, but I was wrong. If the intention was to exasperate me every time the phone rang, the film won. Boy did it win.

Sammy G. gave it a10:
See it more than once; you need to be familiar with kiarostami's work before you appreciate it.

Chad S. gave it a 7:
"The Wind Will Carry Us" begins with a car brimming with conversation between men as they traverse across rural Iran conducted in an unbroken master shot. We hear disembodied voices for about seven minutes. Welcome to Iranian cinema. "The Wind Will Carry Us" is made more accessible than Abbas Kiarostami's previous effort "The Taste of Cherry" by the friendship our Engineer (Behzad Dourani) strikes up with a child. Your lasting memory of "The Wind Will Carry Us" is how the Engineer seeks higher elevation in order for his cell-phone to work. He does this four, or maybe, five times, in which Kiarostami shows him arrive at this destination by foot, and then by car, with varying strategies of editing. This repetitive action must be deadpan comedy as way of explanation for something so mind-numbing. Each time the phone rings, it prevents the Engineer from pushing the narrative in a potentially interesting direction. He wants to answer the call, but the audience wishes that he'd ignore it. Our exasperation could be the desired effect Kiarostami was after; deliberate anti-entertainment as entertainment; the potential to learn more about the Engineer and his mission, stalled by the need to answer a call.

Will C. gave it a 10:
This is a beautiful film that requires effort on the part of the viewer to truly appreciate. Understanding the political situation in Iran is crucial, and it helps to know some of the other works of Kiarostami.

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