The Wind Journeys

Ignacio, a travelling accordion player whose wife has died, decides to stop playing and sets out across northern Colombia to return the instrument to the master who gave it to him. A boy attaches himself to the journey because he wants to be an apprentice. Ciro Guerra builds this less as a music film than as a film about terrain: desert, marsh, mountain and village pass in turn, and each region brings a different tradition into the soundtrack. The accordion has horns fitted to it and is locally held to be tied to the devil, which supplies the quiet dread underneath. The cast is largely non-professional local musicians. It played in Un Certain Regard at Cannes. Who it is for: viewers who like Latin American cinema, road films and folk music. Who it is not for: anyone wanting plot, since this is essentially a long walk.