The Wind Journeys

Los viajes del viento (2009), shown in the U.S. as The Wind Journeys, was written and directed by Ciro Guerra.

This movie was fascinating to me because it opened up windows to a culture and a music with which I'm not familiar. The setting is rural northeastern Colombia, and the music is vallenato, in which the primary instrument is the accordion.

Los viajes is basically a road movie. The story is that a young man follows an older vallenato master as he wanders through rural Colombia, attempting to return an accordion which has mystical properties.

The plot consists of the people they meet, and the experiences they encounter on the journey.

Being unfamiliar with the region and its music, I can't comment on how accurately these are portrayed. The relationship between the man and the boy certainly doesn't conform to the feel-good connection that would surely develop in a U.S. film. Also, the entire movie is more like fantasy than realistic fiction or documentary. However, I admit that people from the region could say, "Actually, that's the way it is."

This is an unusual and fascinating movie, and definitely worth seeing. It will work better on a large screen than a small one, but it will be worth seeking out in either format. (We saw it at the Rochester 360-365 film festival which, despite its ridiculous name, is an excellent event.)

In short: Incomprehensible quest. Same applies to the ending.

Nevertheless, the movie is entertaining throughout and never boring. It shows customs and traditions that may seem alien to us here (NL), but were never unrealistic.

The accordion is not my favorite musical instrument, but that did not hinder me in appreciating the scenes and how they develop in time.

I must admire the younger main character for the trouble he takes to attempt rescuing his older counterpart in the movie. His undertakings seem unreal, and are certainly asking for trouble.

From half way the movie I was definitely missing the logic in the storyline, and was surprised how the story ends too.

Finally a film that plays that elusive music of soul that made one hooked to cinema in the first place.

This film maps the formative process of an artist from a spiritual perspective; the process of impregnating a forming soul with an experience so intense, complex and mystifying that the young soul will spend its entire lifetime trying to decipher its pain and meaning, and the only glimpses of its meaning will arrive through art, there is no other way.

This is a beautiful approach that emphasizes that a master's primary role is not in teaching the art or the skill to the apprentice, but to go a level deeper and impart in the apprentice the kind of experience that will automatically give birth to great art irrespective of the medium.

Contrast this film with Hollywood's treatment to the same theme, Walter Hill's Crossroads (1986), which superficially glosses over the experience part and ultimately succumbs to the glamorous but shallow pandering of the skill part.

there is a certain depth and a certain shallowness in this movie. i am going to speak about the first.

the little boy chasing his master is not supposed to be getting something explicit, as somebody commented here. the very fact that he has a nervous breakdown in the middle of the story, is enough teaching. As consequence, he tries his own path and is very bold in doing so. Although the story will not allow him to follow this type of courage yet, he does try. This is one of the most important things for him. Saying that I CAN DO IT.

the second thing the boy does get, although the average spectator does not seem to see this, is that the experience is not refused to him by his master. the master constantly taunts him, denies him, etc. as the boy says, but this is just a very select and appropriate way that this great master treats his maybe even greater apprentice. his art is no ordinary school, it's also a way of living, of understanding your place in society, etc. Although this seems very romantic and select, it's the way he does it, and not by being practical, sociable, etc.

the things that are not said or done are the most important. that's why a lot of people don't get this film at all. it's not for everybody. you must be a little rebel and also you must have already followed your rebellion a little in order to get the film.

the boy will also get a full image of his master by the end of the film, a master with many weaknesses, except his talent and spiritual endurance.

the ending has a very special atmosphere. it is a sentimental ending. the dead master teaches the living one a very nice lesson, through his living wife and children. the living one gets to teach the young apprentice a lesson, although still not very explicit (there is only one glaze into the apprentice eyes). it is the first time the master is not singing for money or in order not to get killed, and it is still not for such reasons as pleasure or love. it's a very special reason, or reasons. I see it as a duty.. art becomes a duty for those who are masters. it's not just money or entertainment or ordinary love. it's a duty to God, to true love, to life and to innocence.

i really like the way characters keep to their course in this classical movie, have some kind of modesty in them and are not very informed about the future. the mother sends the boy to the troubadour master, because she knows he can teach him things she cannot. the master itself does not control the situation very well, almost dies or is in the danger to die many times and always keeps this side of him in which he himself is an appearance. The boy is the most risk assuming character, more appropriate to his age, and manages to do well in very difficult situations, like a hero, but without really knowing where he heads to. He admits that in front of a woman who asks him why he made all this long journey. He sincerely admits 'I don't know'.

the director himself portrays beautifully a lot of situations and traditions in which life or beauty surpasses logic and when he himself would admit the same thing as the boy: 'I don't know'

Even if You have NEVER visited COLOMBIA.... I am SURE You will ENJOY this AMAZING film! ....If You HAVE... You will really LOVE it!

Before diving in... FIRST... Let us FOCUS on the Title´s Content and Context:

Los VIAJES Del VIENTO/JOURNEYS Of The WIND is definitely an acquired taste. Embarrassingly... I must admit...My wife and I fell asleep the first time we saw it, being very tired, and probably missed over half the film. The vibrant music and some of the images kept on resonating in our brains! So...We decided to see it again. Lucky twist of fate, that! JOURNEYS Of The WIND (My title translation) took us places we had never been, showed us sights we had never seen and treated us to music we had never heard. One thing is for sure: Majagual, Colombia is about as far away from Hollywood as you could ever get!

28 year-old director Ciro Guerra's stated goal in making JOURNEYS: Share his spiritual communion connection with Vallenatos. (A style of Colombian music, the popularity of which has been growing exponentially outside its borders for three decades) With one brief, inconspicuous exception, there are literally no "Time-markers" in JOURNEYS!

Like music itself, this film is TIMELESS! A folkloric Faustian music video psycho-drama that should appeal to anyone who one Sunday morning might say "Today I feel like an art exhibit in the morning, an international music festival in the afternoon and an exotic foreign film at night!" JOURNEYS facilitates doing all three at once. Director Guerra purposefully uses each frame as a canvass.

Music in cinema is usually tailored to images as something of an afterthought. Here, it seems as if Guerra has molded his visuals to the music, with a startlingly refreshing and keenly aesthetic look. JOURNEYS, reflecting real life, does not spoon feed you anything. SH*T happens...You make of it what you may!

8.5********* (Perhaps 10* after our 3rd viewing!?!?!?)

ENJOY! / DISFRUTELA!

Any Comments, Questions or Observations... In ENGLISH... o en ESPAÑOL... are most Welacome!