Another subtle, deceptively simple and richly rewarding work of genius from Kiarostami, this Venice prizewinner opens on a long shot of a car negotiating a dusty mountain road, with driver and passengers arguing about where they are. Those who have seen the Koker Trilogy, especially And Life Goes On..., may ask whether Kiarostami is simply repeating himself, but fans will know there's always more to his work than first meets the eye. Sure enough, once the car reaches the Kurdistan village of Siaf Dareh, the ambiguities and mysteries proliferate and interweave. Are the men in the village treasure-hunters, as they tell a boy, the telecom engineers as the villagers assume to be, or something more sinister? Why is their apparent leader curious about the boy's dying grandma? And why, when Tehran calls on his mobile and he needs to move to higher ground, does he always drive to the cemetery, where an invisible man sings from a hole in the ground? This engrossing and beautiful film succeeds on many levels. As witty, almost absurdist comedy, it offers lovely visual and verbal gags. And as an ethnographic/philosophical study of the relationships between ancient and modern, rural and urban, devotion and directionlessness, it's intriguing and illuminating.

Excerpt from TimeOut located HERE

***

"In Abbas Kiarostami's The Wind Will Carry Us, a quotation from the Iranian poet Forough Farroukhzad, catches the viewer unawares with its meditative beauty, like an enigmatic lyric with a repetitive, incantatory stanza form. And these are qualities which, far from being difficult or alienating, are refined and clarified by the unaffected directness of Kiarostami's cast, professional and non-professional, from whom he elicits sublimely natural performances. From first to last, the impression is of utter confidence and mastery."

Disc Size: 46,479,131,353 bytes

Feature: 29,980,647,744 bytes

Edition Details:
• Commentary by Jonathan Rosenbaum and Mehrnaz Saeed-Vafa
• The Poetry of Cinema: Abbas Kiarostami in conversation with Richard Pena (2014)  (1:29:10)
• 2014 Theatrical Release trailer (2:03)
• 12-page liner notes booklet with photos, credits and essay by Peter Tonguette

Blu-ray Release Date: July 22nd, 2014
Transparent Blu-ray Case

Chapters 12

ADDITION: Cohen Media - Region 'A' - Blu-ray (May 2014): I'm so pleased to have this new edition - a masterpiece - looking sweet in 1080P and with the bonus of the Jonathan Rosenbaum / Mehrnaz Saeed-Vafa commentary.

Firstly, the image - colors do take a dramatic shift - and tend dampened. The SD transfers (from the same D1 source - NY'er didn't even convert from PAL) look boosted beside the Blu-ray, especially the US, which is darker but detail rises substantially and there is more information in the frame. Colors are not enhanced, can look muted beside the DVDs. There is depth and no noise or artifacts - it looks flawed. The 2-hour film is put to a dual-layered disc with a strong bitrate. It looked acceptable on my system - but I can't help think it is incorrect.

The use of audio in the film is quite subtle and, importantly, transferred to a linear PCM stereo at 2304 kbps in original Farsi (and some Kurdish as Mehrnaz Saeed-Vafa points out to us in the commentary.) The film is filled with sounds - often hushed or in the background and there is a sparse use of a score composed by Peyman Yazdanian (his first film composition).  NOTE: the English subtitles are removable with the remote - not as a menu option and the Blu-ray disc is region 'A'-locked.

The supplements are a big part of this package - adding substantial value. We get a commentary by Jonathan Rosenbaum and Mehrnaz Saeed-Vafa. Jonathan remarks that this is his favorite Kiarostami film - making it, to him, one of the greatest films of all time. He remarks about The Wind Will Carry Us being about death (like many Kiarostami films) and how it is actually a comedy - though few think of it that way. The pair add some good discussion with Mehrnaz challenging and bringing out relevant information about themes and cultural details. Also included is a video piece entitled The Poetry of Cinema: Abbas Kiarostami in conversation with Richard Pena. It took place in 2014 at Indiana University Cinema in Bloomington and runs almost 1.5 hours with an interpreter there for Kiarostami. There is also a 2014 Theatrical Release trailer and the package has a 12-page liner notes booklet with photos, credits and essay by Peter Tonguette.