Where the Wind Comes From
Description
2010’s Arab Spring began in Tunisia and brought great hope for change, but few lingering results. In the wake of this lie the unrealized dreams of youngsters like Alyssa and Mehdi. She is 19 and assertive, looking for any chance to live abroad, while he, shyer and more fatalistic, is a talented artist with few creative opportunities. When Alyssa comes across an art contest with a trip to Germany as its prize, she secretly signs up her talented friend and cajoles him into a road trip to enter. Amel Guellaty’s delightful debut is infused with the enthusiasm of youth—fanciful elements include animations springing from Mehdi’s drawings and musical interludes arising from Alyssa’s daydreams—while acknowledging the pathos underlying characters who face constant obstacles on the path to self-realization. It is also a rousing portrait of two friends who find that working together makes them stronger than the sum of their individual parts. —Rod Armstrong
Biographies
Amel Guellaty is a Tunisian director and photographer, who studied law at the Sorbonne before turning her attention to film. She worked as a production assistant on feature films and began making her own films with the shorts Black Mamba (2017) and Chitana (2021). Where the Wind Comes From is her first feature.