Head Wind (Review + Background Buzz + Critical Clips)

Writer/director Mohammad Rasoulof’s narrative feature, Iron Island, is one of the finest Iranian films ever released in the west, and his new work, Head Wind, is a no-less stellar effort, a semi-documentary about the satellite television rage currently sweeping the Middle Eastern nation, even in the face of an often violent clerical adversity.

A mere 65 minutes long, the material nonetheless resonates with depth and clarity, perhaps due, in some degree, to Rasoulof’s choice to film certain of the video-doc’s sequences as if they were traditional film narrative. The standard talking heads are present, but they are linked and/or complemented by lyrical transitions-cum-interludes, as when Head Wind’s most outwardly striking subject (a dwarf who rents out DVDs to an underground network of clients) is introduced ringing one of his customer’s doorbells, leading into a biographical flashback and, finally, a repetition of his introductory action.

Like a good many Iranian films (with Abbas Kiarostami, from a western perspective, as the grand master) Head Wind blurs the line between fact and fiction, creating poetically-tinged aesthetic couplets. Flights of fancy are not things to be differentiated, but recognized as part of the grounded everyday. Iran’s oppressive patriarchal regime no doubt helps to breed a hyperaware sense of the beauties just within reach, and emphasizes how tenuous those things are from moment to moment. When Rasoulof follows a satellite dish technician on his journey to a remote rural location, the billowing reeds surrounding him become a sort of silent character and counterpoint, the static, precisely chosen camera setups recalling the multifaceted climax to Kiarostami’s The Wind Will Carry Us, but possessed of their own unique sense of profundity. It’s but one parable within a poem, tinged with a subtle sense of irony, yet more concerned, as is the work entire, with the interplay between the tragic and the transcendent.

Critical Clips
Zoom in Online's Critical Clips are the gut reactions of everyday movie goers recorded at the film's premiere. So, let's hear from you!

Background Buzz
A round up of related content from across the web including fan blogs, podcasts, analysis, news, magazines, and more. Updated often, so check back!

-Analysis of the film from Variety

-Read the review from Cinematical

-Read the NY Times review of Rasoulof's last film, Iron Island.