Who Has Seen the Wind

This is a rare film, a unsentimental film about children. There is cruelty, but not exaggerated Hollywood cruelty, only real life mundane cruelty to animals and children. It does not milk the dramatic situations excessively. They roll by much the way they do in real life.

There is a an enormous cast of characters, a whole town. The time and place are accurately reproduced, without excessive newly painted gloss you normally see in period movies.

The casting is wonderful with an almost Felliniesque variety of interesting faces.

The film tugs at your heart without cheap tricks. It depicts life just the way it really is.

The story revolves around a boy about 10. The actor who plays him does a superb job, mostly with subtle facial expressions and body language. It is an understated role. You don't feel emotionally blackmailed with cheap tricks to gain your sympathy. Yet you feel his pain as if it were your very own.

This movie might be considered the archetype for the great Canadian movie.