Dry Leaf

With white chalk in his hand and a school blackboard behind him, the main character (nominally speaking, since no “main characters” are meant to stand out in this adventure), explains that straight lines and circles are of utmost importance. The lesson comes across like a terse manifesto of late modernism, which dominates here both overtly and implicitly. Significant lines of all sorts do indeed make their presence felt: poles, sticks, fences, wrought-iron doors, trees, etc. This geometrical insistence feels all the more blatant given that of the many people to be encountered, most are invisible, giving full space to a nobly elementary beauty. When the other beings appear, they thus seem to pop up as if by magic: kids, a scant handful of men and women, as well as plants, clouds and animals—quite a crowd of them, silently staking a claim on an Eden of their own. Unlike in James Whale’s sublime THE INVISIBLE MAN (1933), no explanation is given for this elegant discretion. So let us candidly believe what director Alexandre Koberidze reveals about the title, which, in football jargon, refers to “a kick with an unpredictable landing of the ball—much like our characters who surrender to the journey and trust the wind to lead them.” (Jean-Pierre Rehm)

In the presence of Alexandre Koberidze and members of the team.

Alexandre Koberidze: DER FALL (2014, K), COLOPHON (2015, K), THE PERFECT SPECTATOR (2017, K), LET THE SUMMER NEVER COME AGAIN (2017), LINGER ON SOME PALE BLUE DOT (2018, K), WHAT DO WE SEE WHEN WE LOOK AT THE SKY? (2021)