Review of The Wind Phone

Inspired by a story of a telephone booth set on a Japanese cliff, where people come to call loved ones lost to a tragic natural disaster, this short and profoundly simple film beautifully conveys the feeling of loss and desire to stay connected to the people who have perished. The frame filling shot of the ocean, against which the Director, Kirsten Gerweck placed the phone booth-set, bespeaks of the vastness of the grief portrayed by each character who enters and speaks into the old fashion pay phone. The film smartly captures the essence of the Japanese heightened sense of life and death and relaying on simplicity it makes its statement universal. Nice cinematography furthers the poetry of the piece.