Color has drained from the vast landscape, leaving behind an almost monochromatic scheme of greys and browns. The land is parched and cracked. Animals are dying. Abandoned villages lie half-buried like archeological ruins. Furious swirls of sand buffet small bands of travelers guiding families and herds across the desert. It is the drought which brings Water, Wind, Sand's young protagonist home to his village only to find a ghost town. Alone, he sets out, intent on finding his people or some relief from the calamity engulfing him. As in The Runner (SFIFF 1987), Iran's Amir Naderi once again explores the texture of extreme adversity by filtering it through the experiences of a child. For this most difficult role he cast Majid Nirumand, the young star of The Runner. Shot in medium long shot in the midst of unrelenting sand storms, Water, Wind, Sand possesses a startlingly visceral, often brutal edge. The hyper-realism of Naderi's environmental mise-en-scène heightens the empathetic impact of the boy's exhausting ordeal. And when he telescopes his expansive frame to embrace a detail-a baby, a goldfish, the surreal climax-the film shifts to the plane of the ineffable. Shot in 1985, banned when Naderi defected to the U.S., and only edited last year, Water, Wind, Sand shared top honors at Nantes. --Laura Thielen