In 1941, an Estonian woman and her young daughter struggle to find their way home after being deported to Siberia by the Soviet occupiers, in this dreamlike saga of survival inspired by a true story.
In the Crosswind focuses on the personal experience of philosophy student Erna (Laura Peterson) as she endures physical and psychological hardships alongside her little daughter, Eliide, while waiting to be reunited with her husband Heldur, a soldier. Drawing from the diary kept by the real-life Erna throughout her displacement, Helde renders her memories in striking black-and-white tableaux vivants. Carving out an uncanny space between motion and stasis, these images evoke a state in which the past seems solid and the present like a dream.
Exhaustively researched, with immersive sound design and sumptuous cinematography, In the Crosswind is a remarkable achievement: a testimony to a vital historical moment, a powerfully subjective account of a search for home, and an ode to the ethereal strangeness of memory.
DIMITRI EIPIDES
Screenings
Scotiabank 5
TIFF Bell Lightbox 3
Scotiabank 1
Scotiabank 13