The Wind Journeys

“This is the story of a journey,” Colombian director Ciro Guerra begins. “A journey towards the beginning, towards the spirit. Towards our soul. For centuries, we've asked ourselves: what keeps us apart? Now it is time to ask what brings us together.” In THE WIND JOURNEYS, Ignacio Carrillo is a juglar, a wandering accordian player who has spent his life traversing northern Colombia. Legend has it that Ignacio's accordian master once beat the devil in a competition called a piqueria. The devil took revenge by putting a curse on his instrument so that whoever plays it will remain a juglar forever. Tired of wandering and fiercely determined to return his inherited accordian to the maestro, Ignacio sets off. A stubborn teenager named Fermin, who dreams of being a juglar like Ignacio, follows him. Their journey takes them from Majagual, Sucre, to Taroa, beyond the Guajira desert; on their way they experience the wild diversity of the land and the Caribbean culture. Ignacio and Fermin come across voodoo drummers in the forest and Arhuaca Indians in the Sierra Nevada Mountains. They witness a machete fight on a bridge and cockfights in ramshackle huts. And everywhere they go, music brings people together. (In Spanish with subtitles) – B.B.