A car carrying a film crew from Tehran travels far into the countryside to an isolated Kurdish village. Behzad (Dorani), who goes by the moniker “engineer,” befriends Farzad (Sohrabi), a young boy who shows him around. The visitor inquires about the health of an elderly woman who is close to death and whose funeral he wants to document. Behzad spends days in limbo, fielding calls from the city despite terrible phone reception. He discovers the slow rhythms of country life as he waits for the inevitable.

Setting large parts of his meditative film in a car, and showing Dorani often interacting with off-camera co-stars, the gifted helmsman Kiarostami continues his cinematic exploration of life and death. Gleaning humor from the culture clash between city and country, the Iranian director deftly poses weighty, existential questions with a feather-light touch. As Behzad waits, and goes through mundane, daily rituals, his existence becomes a microcosm of what we all experience most days, as we wait for something to happen. With stunning scenery that Kiarostami films in gorgeous wide shots, this subtle, meandering tone poem is deeply provocative and satisfying. Let this “Wind” carry you away.