An engineer (Behzad Dorani) from Tehran drives and drives, along with his colleagues, through the arid landscape searching for a single tree upon a hill, a marker to indicate how close they are to the village where an elderly woman is dying.
Searching for Treasure
The drive seems never-ending, as these guys travel higher and higher, until they are finally caught by a young boy, who indicates that he has been sent by his father to direct them to the village. On the final leg of their journey, with the young boy now in tow, The Engineer questions the boy about the health of the dying woman; the boy says she is not well.
Before arriving, the young boy wonders why these men from Tehran would be interested in his tiny little village in the middle of nowhere; and what might be their reason for inquiring about the dying old invalid. They say, laughingly, they are there to search for buried treasure, and for the boy to spread this story throughout the village.
Climbing Higher Still
The village is beautiful, nestled against a steep embankment, reflecting orange and gold from the sun beating down. The boy leads The Engineer on a hike up the back side of the village, an apparent shortcut. It becomes clear at this point, after the long uphill drive, and now, the impossibly steep hike up the rocky embankment, writer/director Abbas Kiarostami is making a statement about man's elevation: body, mind, and soul.
For it’s only a matter of time that The Engineer will find himself having to search for even higher ground, when his cell phone won’t receive service; back in the car he drives, straight up, where he can receive a signal, and will continually do so, in order to carry on very cryptic conversations regarding his reason for being there.
The mystery as to why The Engineer is there, will be revealed in bits and pieces, and it does involve the dying invalid, and it does require a certain secrecy for The Engineer to achieve what he wants to achieve; but, like great Scot film maker Bill Forsyth’s majestic movie Local Hero, The Engineer’s relationships within the community, and his observations of a life far removed from the urban existence he hails from, is where most of the answers lie.
...and the wind will carry us
One of the trademarks of Abbas Kiarostami’s work, is his use of poetry as dialogue. This technique of dropping lines of poetry into pivotal scenes in a film is a brilliant and masterful use of the medium.
The title itself is from an Iranian poem; and the scene in which The Engineer recites the lines, ...and the wind will carry us, is perhaps the most haunting and poignant moment.
The Engineer has gone to a house in the village to get a pale of milk; upon arrival, an old lady directs him down (for the first time, down) into a very dark basement; once there, a beautiful 16-year-old girl sits all alone, with a milk cow.
The Engineer recites the poem to the girl as she draws his milk; as he is leaving, the girl asks in a heart-breaking moment: Can anybody be a poet? The Engineer leaves with his milk, clearly bewildered by the notion of a young, intelligent girl spending her days in a pitch black basement milking a cow.
Prefer the present...
There are many such lovely and poetic moments in The Wind Will Carry Us; as in one of the final scenes: The Engineer engages a doctor who has come to the village to attend to the dying woman; asking if perhaps its best for the invalid to die; for the afterlife is said to be far more beautiful.
The doctor retorts The Engineer’s selfish desire for heaven, by asking how anyone would know, no one has come back to tell us about it; concluding, again with lines from a poem:
They tell me she is as beautiful as houri from heaven!
Yet, I say, the juice of the vine is better.
Prefer the present to these fine promises.
Even a drum sounds more melodious from afar...
Prefer the present...Prefer the present...
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