Irreverent city engineer Behzad comes to a rural Kurdish village in Iran to keep vigil for a dying relative. While death hovers around the corner, Behzad gains perspectives on life and spirituality as he befriends the locals and experiences nature’s majesty, changing his own attitudes as a result.

With delicate notes of absurdist humor and serenely beautiful landscapes, Abbas Kiarostami continues to plumb some of the eternal questions in The Wind Will Carry Us. The emphasis, once more, is on the journey rather the destination. This is essential, transcendent cinema.