Directed from a screenplay by Abbas Kiarostami, The Willow and the Wind develops a signature theme from Kiarostami's earlier work that has evolved from an archetypal theme of Iranian cinema. A child charged with a man-size mission faces adult indifference, the elements, and mere bad luck in the quest to prove himself. The life Talebi brings to this simple story of a boy's attempt to repair, at the height of a rainstorm, the schoolroom window he broke comes from his instinctive understanding of how to render the world of children. The boy, rambunctious but endearingly childlike in his earnest attempt to assume responsibility, is ultimately alone in his fear and his lack of resources as he undertakes his near impossible task with ingenuity and the stoic resignation of Sisyphus. The pathos of the story is mediated by humor and a strong sense of the plucky boy's resiliency.-Barbara Scharres