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Los viajes del viento. Dir. Ciro Guena. Colombia- Argentina-Alemania-Holanda, 2009. Dur.: 117 min.
Los viajes del viento, or The Wind Journeys, is Colombian director Ciro Guena's second falllength film, after his first black and white La sombra del caminante, or The Wandering Shadows (2004). In La sombra del caminante, Guena's lens focuses on Bogotá, the capital city of Colombia, film which can certainly be included in the long list of the so called Latin American urban cinema. In his second cinematic work, Guena switches his focus to some of the rural areas of Colombia, namely some of the north regions of the country, primarily the departments (in Colombian geography, a department conesponds to what would be a state in the geographical system of Hie United States) of Cesar, Sucre, Córdoba, and La Guajira, areas which, as a matter of fact, have been heavily hit by guerilla and paramilitary groups. Interestingly enough, these areas, for the most part, had previously been invisible to Colombian directors and filmmakers and consequently to national and international audiences. The fact that Guena decided to bring attention to these areas could definitely be considered as one of his innovations. Guena himself is from a town called Rio de Oro (located in Cesar, one of Colombia's northern departments.)
Los viajes del viento is about a rural man, Ignacio Canillo, a juglar who is an expert at both singing vallenato music and playing the accordion. In the vallenato singing tradition a juglar is a man who is well respected among the population for his skillfalness at both singing, composing and reciting verses - without preparation, just on the spot - and playing the accordion. Ignacio learned this special skill from his maestro (master) Guena, a legendary maestro who lives in the desert of La Guajira, the most northern region of Colombia where indigenous cultures, like the Wayuu aborigines live. When the diegetic nanation begins, Ignacio does not live in La Guajira, but in Majagual (in the department of Sucre); however he feels compelled to go back there to return the accordion to his master as he has decided not to sing or play the accordion any longer due to the loneliness through which he is going, as a result of his wife's recent...