The Wind Will Carry Us Blu-ray Movie

Rating summary

Movie		4.5
Video		5.0
Audio		4.0
Extras		3.5
Overall		4.5

The Wind Will Carry Us Blu-ray Movie Review

Reviewed by Jeffrey Kauffman July 26, 2025

When Cohen Media Group's Cohen Film Collection imprint released The Wind Will Carry Us over a decade ago (!), it was my hope that that Blu-ray release might bring both the film and its master filmmaker Abbas Kiorastami greater renown, but my hunch is those seeing this newer Criterion release will either never have heard of the film or not be aware it had a prior release on Blu-ray. One way or the other, The Wind Will Carry Us is ripe for rediscovery.

As mentioned above, The Wind Will Carry Us had a 1080 release courtesy of Cohen quite some time ago, and my The Wind Will Carry Us Blu-ray review provides plot information, a list of supplements and my reaction to the technical presentation, for anyone who may be interested.

The Wind Will Carry Us Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

The Wind Will Carry Us is presented on Blu-ray courtesy of Criterion with an AVC encoded 1080p transfer in 1.85:1. In lieu of an insert booklet, Criterion provides a foldout leaflet with this release which contains the following information on the master:

The Wind Will Carry Us is presented in the aspect ratio of 1.85:1. Undertaken by MK2, this 4K restoration was created from the 35 mm original camera negative. The original monaural soundtrack was remastered from the 35 mm magnetic track.

I gave largely positive marks to Cohen's old release, but of course a 4.0 score in 2014 might not warrant such high praise today, especially when stacked up against this clearly superior looking transfer. Just a cursory comparison of color temperature alone in the screenshots here and on the old review of the Cohen release should show pretty easily how much healthier and more natural this transfer looks. Detail levels are also at least marginally improved, especially fine detail on "little" items like the tufted hat the little boy wears, or even some of the textures on the wattle village. Grain resolves naturally throughout.

The Wind Will Carry Us Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

The Wind Will Carry Us features an LPCM Mono track that struck my ears as virtually indistinguishable from the LPCM 2.0 Mono track on the old Cohen release (it's perhaps worth noting that the Cohen disc described the language as "Farsi", whereas this one states "Persian", which are admittedly interchangeable even if most Iranians would probably say "Farsi" to describe their language). This is an often subtle track with mostly passing ambient environmental sounds offering what depth there is. Dialogue is rendered cleanly and clearly. Optional English subtitles are available.

The Wind Will Carry Us Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

• A Week with Kiarostami (HD; 1:29:57) is a 1999 documentary by Yuji Mohara, made during the production of this film. Subtitled in English.


• Kiarostami: A Lesson in Cinema (HD; 53:22) is a 2002 interview with Kiarostami. Subtitled in English.


• Abbas Kiarostami: Poet (HD; 14:35) is an interesting visual essay which combines scenes from Kiarostami film with snippets of his poetry.


• Trailer (HD; 1:36)

A foldout leaflet contains an essay by Kaveh Akbar.

The Wind Will Carry Us Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

This is clearly the better looking transfer of this extremely interesting film, and really the only negative here is that the fascinating Jonathan Rosenbaum and Mehrnaz Saeed-Vafa commentary from the Cohen release wasn't able to be included here. Otherwise, this offers sterling technical merits and some appealing supplements of its own. Highly recommended.