Wind Blows Round, The

The Maira valley in the Italian Alps offers fantastic scenery, with steep wooded slopes, plateaus with meadows and pastures, and tiny stone villages nestling in the hillside. They have a colourful and dramatic history, but they are dying out, the houses are shut and only come to life with the arrival of tourists at the beginning of summer. A young French family from the border region decide to rent a farm in one of the villages. Philippe Héraud used to be a teacher but today he has several hundred goats and produces goat's cheese in large quantities. His attractive wife looks after the house and their four children. At first, everything seems like a fairy tale – the villagers are overjoyed at their arrival and selflessly offer them the help they need; they see in the newcomers a chance to rejuvenate the place and get village life going again. But the more the couple succeeds, the more enemies they acquire. The director follows in the footsteps of Ermanno Olmi and his Tree with the Wooden Clogs; offering profound insight into the region and its inhabitants, he avoids adding any dramatic episodes from outside this environment. (Karlovy Vary International Film Festival)