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Poster for Should the Wind Drop

Should the Wind Drop

Opens on March 12
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Director: Nora Martirosyan Run Time: 100 min. Rating: NR

Starring: Arman Navasardyan, Grégoire Colin, Hayk Bakhryan

Country: France, Armenia, Belgium
Language: French, Armenian, English, Russian, with English subtitles

Should the Wind Drop / Si le vent tombe is presented in the Film Center’s Virtual Screening Room as part of Rendez-Vous with French Cinema, the celebrated annual festival presented by Film at Lincoln Center and UniFrance Films. 


About the film:

Should the Wind Drop is Armenia’s official submission for Best International Feature at the 94th Academy Awards.

The disputed landlocked region of Nagorno-Karabakh is an eight-hour drive from the closest airport, but French auditor Alain could change this if he determines that the war-torn republic’s inactive Stepanakert Airport can safely reopen. As he spends a week getting to know the locals, Alain discovers an area struggling to rebuild itself two decades after a fragile ceasefire between Armenia and Azerbaijan, and realizes that his regulatory decision could seal the global fate of a society on the verge of disappearance.

Brought to life by a lively ensemble cast and a compassionate performance from Claire Denis’s frequent muse Grégoire Colin, this Cannes 2020 selection announces a sharp and forward-thinking new voice in Nora Martirosyan.

Screening as part of A Taste of Rendez-Vous with French Cinema, an opportunity for audiences across the U.S. to experience a curated selection of festival highlights, showcasing the best in contemporary French filmmaking. All films include virtual Q&As.

About the filmmaker:

Nora Martirosyan studied art and filmmaking in her native country of Armenia, then travelled across Europe studying in Amsterdam and France. Since 2015, she has taught cinema and video at the School of Fine Arts in Bordeaux. She has directed several award-winning short films, and her debut feature film Should the Wind Drop is the first Armenian film in the Official Selection of the Cannes Film Festival since 1965.

The film was shot in Nagorno-Karabakh, the politically disputed region between Azerbaijan and Armenia (read more about the devastating conflict in The New York Times). The Ministry of Culture of the Republic of Azerbaijan issued letters opposing festival screenings, but festival directors spoke out in support:

“It gives us food for thought, a landscape, a people, a hope. Should the Wind Drop forces us to see and understand. This is also the role of cinema.”
– Thierry Frémaux, Cannes artistic director, in Variety

Read about Martirosyan’s views on art, politics, and filmmaking in an interview for Institut Français.

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