Sometimes you've got to go a long way to find an enjoyable theatrical feature utterly free of Hollywood contrivance or influence. This week it's Kazahkstan, locale of the odd, wry allegorical fantasy Wind Man.
A recent entry at the Sundance and Telluride Film Festivals (and a winner at Montreal's), Wind Man is a quirky, quasi-Biblical allegory, taken from a story by Gabriel Garcia Marquez. It takes place in a desolate village in a polyglot part of the former Soviet Union where the majority of the population looks Asian, practises Islam and speaks Russian, and where the town "transit" is a wingless plane that taxis around -- hardly an Eden, but the scene of "a Fall" nonetheless.
As the story begins, a cloaked figure is seen circling the perimeter of the town. Those who peel back the cloak to see its face are soon dead. We recognize the figure as Death itself, a "Madar" to the locals.
At the same time, a villager named Almat (Kuandyk Krystykbaev) and his son discover in their barn an old man (Igor Yasulovich) with broken wings. The appearance of this crash-landed "angel" -- who speaks no known language -- inspires fear in the populace (even more than that provoked by the Madar), and heated argument among the local religious leaders, with the local mullah pronouncing him a demon because he doesn't speak "Allah's language," Arabic.
Unable to come to an agreement, they call on the local political "boss" to come in from town. The fat criminal (Farkhad Abdraimov) demands the angel be forced to fly, but pokes from a hot branding iron only provoke it to open its wings and unleash hurricane-like winds. Unconvinced, the "boss" leaves, stealing from the locals as he goes.
Through it all, only Almat and his son approach the Wind Man with compassion (there is a memorable scene where Almat tries to help the angel regain the power of flight). Unfortunately misfortune is Almat's only reward, with the eventual loss of seemingly everything dear to him. It's a Story of Job with a semi-bad ending and a coat of jaundiced humour.
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As painted by director Khuat Akhmetov, the village (or "aul") is an irredeemable place, paralyzed by fear, tainted by greed and governed by the worst sorts of all. And even the heroes are not immune to their baser instincts (a desperate Almat at one point tries to sell the angel). The ugliness crosses over into satire, which makes a nice mix with the seedy mysticism that powers the movie and the comically decrepit locale.
Originated in the '50s by Marquez, and scripted by Akhmetov in the '90s, Wind Man contains elements of old school class struggle and the fear of the new that pervaded the entire Eastern Bloc with the fall of communism. At issue is the relevant good or evil that men will do with no one to give them instructions. The mullahs and government -- who should be reliable sources of same -- both fail Almat. And so he must, scarily, take heavenly matters into his own hands.
The Curious Case of Benjamin Button
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/B001U0HBPG/almosthuman
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