As Viagens do Vento

(2009) The Wind Journeys/ Los viajes del viento (In Spanish with English subtitles) SPIRITUAL DRAMA

If you've seen and liked "The Devil And Daniel Webster" then this movie is something of that nature- that and "The Straight Story" since it's like the "Daniel Webster" of accordions in the spiritual kind of way. Written and directed by Ciro Guerra starring Marciano Martínez as accordion traveler, Ignacio Carrillo while riding on top of a donkey to return his accordion back to the original owner. He gets followed by an ambitious teenager, Fermin Morales (Yull Nunez) who throughout the movie sometimes steals parts of the movie as he aids and helps Ignacio to complete this objective. Fermin's main motivation is to learn how to play the accordion instrument, but what he get instead is what viewers get, which is the customs and practices of accordion music as a result of their traveling. This movie may be too slow to some viewers as we're showed some gorgeous looking landscapes throughout the regions.

I expected to see a journey across Colombia's diverse geographical and cultural landscapes...and I was not disappointed. And as a second-language Spanish learner, I wanted to hear authentic Colombian Spanish...and I did. In fact, "The Wind Journeys" is a very well filmed journey across Colombia; I could see it winning an award for best cinematography. But the story about the current owner of the devil's accordion who, after the death of his wife vows to never play again, embarks on a journey to return the instrument to its rightful owner, including the ending, just didn't click for me.

Perhaps the times they are a changing, or maybe I've changed. I think in the 1980s, when I was 30 years younger, full of enthusiasm to travel the world and learn about exotic cultures, reading novels by García Márquez and more hopeful about life in general, I would have liked "The Wind Journeys" a lot more, or I would have just enjoyed watching it without caring if I bought the premise.

The premise of "The Wind Journeys" isn't as ridiculous as that of "Central Station" (another beautifully filmed and culturally-interesting story but which is based on a ludicrous premise). Yet even without the ongoing violence of the drug lords or the 40+ years of the ongoing FARC rebellion simmering in the background, the Colombia we see in "The Wind Journeys" is a violent, cruel, macho place where it's hard for me to have sympathy for anyone...because what good would that do? In spite of the great filming technique, this is not the Colombia of magical realism, this is the Colombia where a bit of hope swims hopelessly in a sea of hopelessness.

Mark Twain wrote that readers of romantic novels should love the good people, hate the bad people, and always be able to tell the two apart. I guess the two protagonists are the "good" guys in a world of "bad" guys, but I just didn't find myself caring deeply about their fates. Having said that, I would recommend this film for my hardcore Southamericanophile friends who want to see the wondrous and horrible beauty of Colombia. But I'm glad I didn't make my wife go with me to see this film at our local art-house theatre. In fact, I may go out and rent "La triste e increíble historia de la cándida Eréndira y su abuela desalmada" to cheer myself up, or maybe I'll put on my favorite Carlos Vives CD. Yeah, that's what I'll do.

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.)

Road-movie, coming-of-age tale…check and check, but do not be mislead by these general film genre titles and the formulaic tropes that they often carry. Ciro Guerra's award-winning feature debut is much more. (By the way he was 27 years old when he filmed it). In a small village in Colombia, Ignacio (Marciano Martinez), a troubadour, has just lost his wife. In grief and in somewhat of an existential panic Ignacio sets out on a journey to return his unique accordion, known as "The Devil's Accordion," to his master Guerra who bestowed it upon him. The legend of the accordion and the mystical aura surrounding the existence of Master Guerra gives the film a powerful mystical undertone. Ignacio, on mule, soon discovers he is not alone on his journey, but finds a zestful teenager Fermin (Nunez) in tow. The dynamics of their relationship is to be expected: optimism vs. pessimism, willing student vs. reluctant mentor, a young man's passion for life vs. an older man exhausted by life, yet these simple tropes never comes off as tired and overly predictable. The Wind Journeys has a poignant intellectual life, confidently mixing humor and sadness, the air of the ethereal with the coarse naturalness of everyday life.

The true artistic and intellectual revelations of the film come from its aural and visual explosions. As can be seen and heard in the final sequence, the wind carries the music and the music the wind, as both roar audibly intertwined over beautiful shots of various landscapes of Colombia. The music is what drives the characters from stop to stop along the journey. "I don't play the accordion, it plays me," as Ignacio tells his young companion. Guerra has created pure filmic poetry through the characters discovering, rediscovering and embracing various cultural sights and sounds: like the intense, beautiful scene with one tribe's drumming initiation ceremony, where if you pass the test on the drums the players' hands are covered in the blood of a lizard.

The cinematography is gorgeous and as the film progresses the crane shots overlooking the majestic pastoral landscapes and the quiet roaming shots of something as simple as the wind blowing the vibrant, tall green grass on a hillside functions in almost a Terrence Mallick sense. The camera-work only helps to heighten the spiritual and mystic undertones, which Guerra strikes a perfect balance with; not allowing the story or the visual scope to bend too far into the land of magic-realism. Everything Mr. Guerra does is balanced: emotional with mundane, mystic with the natural. The natural but existential quandaries of the characters and how they relate to one another and how they relate to the ebbs and flows of the overflowing cultural magnificence of the world in which they are passing through makes for truly refined and sublime filmmaking.

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'