Windstorm - Liberi nel vento

The parents of Mika (Hanna Binke) send her to her grandmother to instill some structure and discipline in her. The grandmother was once an Olympic rider and owns a riding stable. Mika feels she is not good at anything, but discovers her talent when she befriends a troubled horse named Windstorm.

This is a good family movie about a love affair between a troubled horse and a human namely Mika. Mika discovers she has the gift of what a horse feels and they bond instantly. This is not as predictable as it may seem because there are a few bumps along the way that surprised me. (You're too easy)

This is a German movie and the English is dubbed in. After a while it is not all that distracting or noticeable as we get more involved with Mika and Windstorm. And involved you will get . The story is well told and you never want this to end.

As far as I am concerned this is as good as the movie The Black Stallion. (8/10)

Violence: Not really. Sex: No. Nudity: No. Language: No.

Psychologically the film is very strong and I would say very difficult. A teenage girl who once found out what she wants in life and strives for it no matter what: Neither circumstances, nor parents, nor other people who are trying to supposedly isolate her from problems, but in fact manipulate her, because got used to it in life. The girl does not know fear, does not waste her energy on things that she does not like and that do not suit her, in this case it is physics. In the film you can clearly see how her parents are trying to make her a physicist. Why? Because my grandmother also once wanted to make my mother a horseman. This is how family relationship patterns pass from generation to generation. The girl has lively and strong energy, she is like a fast river that cannot be grabbed, intercepted, much less changed. She lives by her own thoughts and not by the thoughts of her parents and has real fortitude, the same as every child has until her parents break her.

The relationship between the child and the horse is simply incredible. It gave me goosebumps and brought me to tears, even sobs...

A very beautiful, spectacular, solemn film, containing all the ideas that are needed for motivation, development and inspiration. The actors played their roles charmingly.

The film teaches such things as how important it is to find your calling, to be brave and go through life, sweeping away all obstacles from your path, not to give up, to believe in yourself and your neighbor and go to the end.

Just saw this movie streamed by IMDB, entitled Westwind, although it's in this database as Ostwind, the original German title. Although formulaic, a mixed up city teen gets sent to a horse farm to straighten her out, it is done very well in this case. Beautiful cinematography which succeeds in capturing the love between the girl and her horse. Since it is dubbed in English, we're probably missing half of the original screen actors' portrayal of the characters, but, on the whole, the movie engaged me until the end, even though I knew how it would end. Worth watching by teens and adults who love horses.

The only version i found was dubbed, badly. If a movie is filmed in a different language I want to hear the original language with subtitles. The mouth movements never match up and can be distracting. That alone makes unwatchable.

To be sure, I've taken a hard look (actually it was shoved down my throat) at "spiritually-inspired training methods." Also, I'm aware of non US differences in techniques... Further, walking a horse off the Amish truck (Hungary) was not a foreign concept to me when I felt the need. And last but not least, I'm not here to "bad mouth" the film because movies are for entertainment purposes, with fictitious content - which should therefore not be subjected to peer review.

Having said all that, in the interest of harm reduction, I'd like to offer a few sentences:

Horses are extremely powerful animals and even the most docile weanling can cause serious injury to an individual unintentionally. No thousand pound class animal can be tranquilized and dropped in a few seconds with an intramuscular injection. Colts/Stallions in general, are not the type of animal you want to bond with - that's why most are gelded. Grooming takes place while a horse is tethered, preferably with cross ties. A horse in a domesticated environment requires a halter, at night, in a stall, it may be removed but should be replaced asap in the AM. Never lie down anywhere near a horse.

Outstanding lighting effects, please see it with your children - the ones that have reading skills.

The views and opinions expressed are solely those of the author.