Plot
This film travels through fantasy and reality as Joris Ivens goes to China to capture the wind. The film reflects the filmmaker's journey from Pour le Mistral (1966), his first film on the wind, to this project, which is his final film. The essay film flows between fantasy and reality moving between the images the filmmaker has made, seen or dreamt about. Combining documentary with Chinese mythology and opera and even Georges Méliès' Le voyage dans la lune (1902), Ivens melds culture, landscape and mindscape with breathtaking effect. The old director travels as a boy from his windmill home in erstwhile Holland in a glider made from clothes from a clothesline. We see his journey through life and into the mysticism of the orient in his old age. His memories take us into a humorous, sometimes pensive, magical journey while the film's crew struggles to capture the wind and his breath.
Written by
Joris Ivens, Marceline Loridan Ivens
Directed by
Joris Ivens
Crew
Production Countries
United Kingdom, France, Germany, Netherlands
Production Companies
Air France, Capi Films, Channel Four Films, La Sept Cinéma, Nederlandse Omroepstichting (NOS), NDR, Stichting Nederlands, Studio Documentaire de Chine, TF1 Films Production, WDR
Languages
Français, English
Awards
2 wins