Memories of the Wind

Story

World War II. Turkey is working with Nazi Germany and using similarly brutal methods against minorities and members of the opposition. For Aram, an Armenian dissident, painter and poet, life in Istanbul is growing more dangerous by the day. In the winter of 1943, he flees to the Turkish-Georgian border, where Mikhail and his young wife Mereyem give him shelter in a hut in the forest. Here, Aram waits for the papers he needs to escape to the Soviet Union. But the city-dwelling intellectual can’t handle life in the woods. He’s scared and feels lost in nature, with all its unexplained sounds and noises. The documents take a long time and Aram and Mereyem grow closer, making the situation for all concerned unbearable. Memories of the Wind is a melancholy drama about escape which makes Aram’s exposure to nature and the endless wait for his papers almost tangibly painful.

Director

Already with his debut film Autumn, Özcan Alper (*1975) caused a sensation and won numerous prizes, including the CICAE Art Cinema Award in Locarno. His follow-up Future Lasts Forever (2011) also won several awards.