Border Crossings Double Bill: Nomad's Land/The Storm Bird

NOMAD'S LAND
Director: Gaël Métroz. Switzerland 2008. 90 mins. French with English subtitles.

The young director takes to the road alone, camera in hand, following the footsteps of the famous Swiss travel writer Nicolas Bouvier. Discovering that the East is no longer the carefree land of Bouvier's writing – Iran in crisis, Pakistan shaken by tribal violence, the Taliban, civil war in Sri Lanka – he leaves the well-travelled routes and instead joins the nomads. A stunning journey through the landscapes of Turkey, Iran, Pakistan, Afghanistan, China, India and Sri Lanka, this film explores the poetry and dangers of travel, sometimes in alarmingly extreme conditions.

THE STORM BIRD (MORGHE TUFÂN)
Director: Tariq Marzbaan. Germany 2007. 37 mins. Persian and German with English subtitles.

Zâher Howeida, an iconic musician in Afghanistan, has been
in exile with his family in Germany since the 1990s. He tells of the difficulties exile has brought him, reciting a Persian poem in which a storm bird tries to flap its wings in a time of lethargy.

Print source: Films Distribution / Courtesy of Tariq Marzbaan