Movie Review Monday - Just the Wind

Just the Wind was part of the 36th Portland International Film Festival and was inspired by a true story.

My sister and I went to see the show on Sunday night.

This was a Hungarian film that won the Sydney Film Festival Jury Grand Prize at the Berlin Film Festival.

The film used local villagers rather than professional actors, which I really liked. The people were not photoshopped, digitized, make-believe beauties. These people were real everyday people.

The film tracked the three leads by using a roving camera in a Gus Van Sant sort of way, which made the show very naturalistic.

It was the story of hate for an entire group of people: the Roma Gypsies and is based on real ethnic tensions in Hungary. If you want to read more about some of the murders of these people, you can read this TIME article.

Just the Wind is the story of a Romany family's last days. They were hoping to escape the ethnic tensions into Canada but never made it. 

The mother was a hard-working mom, who worked two jobs to support her two children. The show depicted her daily struggle just to survive. She would get up early, feed her sick father, check on the kids and then be off on the bus to her first job. After working all day, she'd hurry off to her second job then home to take care of the kids and begin the process all over again.

The authorities turn a blind eye to their persecution. Six families are murdered, not because of anything they've done but only because of their ethnicity.

It was a slow-moving show, following the characters around in their daily lives (which was rather mundane). But this highlighted the poverty and depressing circumstances.

In the end, the grandfather, mother and sister end up dead - having been shot in their sleep. The only one to escape is the son, who ran out of the home and hid.

All-in-all it was a very depressing film but I think it did a good job of exposing the ethnic violence in a horrific way.