Times and Winds

The intensely lyrical TIMES AND WINDS, winner of both the FIPRESCI and Best Turkish Film Awards at the 2006 Istanbul Film Festival, is the fourth feature from director Reha Erdem. The film depicts the bumpy emotional lives of three preteen friends and the ways their families curb their dreams and desires as surely as the mountain and sea confine their isolated village.

“From the first frames of TIMES AND WINDS I felt completely captivated . . . Erdem's shots of curtains blowing in a window, or three men having an argument in a field, have a hypnotic power that's not easily summarized.” (Andrew O’Hehir, Salon)

“[A] transporting vision of life in a mountain village in northwest Turkey.” (Stephen Holden, New York Times)

“A humanist-pastoral epic in the tradition of Pudovkin.” (Robert Koehler, L.A. Weekly)

An “ineffably beautiful portrait.” (Jan Stuart, Newsday)

“Let us give thanks for the small pleasures of life. The Turkish movie Times and Winds, for example.” (V.A. Musetto, New York Post)

“The film looks beautiful, its elegant compositions well capturing the natural beauty of the landscape.” (Frank Scheck, Hollywood Reporter)

“A hypnotic portrait of village life -- largely through the eyes of three youngsters -- that packs a poetic-spiritual punch way beyond its placid surface.” (Derek Elley, Variety)