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Headwinds

Headwinds (Des vents contraires)

Movie · 2011 · 12 people

Olivier Adam's 2009 novel Des vents contraires gave both its name and its story to the drama Jalil Lespert directed in France and released in 2011, known in English as Headwinds. The film runs about 91 minutes. In Turkey it opened on 22 June 2012 under the title Sert Rüzgarlar.

At its centre is the writer Paul Anderen, played by Benoît Magimel. His wife Sarah disappears without a trace, leaving two small children behind. For a full year Paul stays in the family's Paris home waiting for her and searching for her in every way he can, but nothing comes of it. His savings run out and he cannot stop blaming himself. In the end he takes the children to Saint-Malo, the seaside town where he grew up, and settles in the house left by his father. There he meets what his old life left behind, and new surprises are waiting for him.

The screenplay was written jointly by Adam, Marion Laine and Lespert, himself also known as an actor. Alongside Magimel, Isabelle Carré, Audrey Tautou and Antoine Duléry take the leading roles, with Ramzy Bedia, Lubna Azabal, Bouli Lanners, Aurore Clément and Daniel Duval also in the cast.

DirectorJalil Lespert
Headwinds (Des vents contraires)

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Lubna Azabal Lubna Azabal Actor · 53 years old Ramzy Bedia Ramzy Bedia Actor · 54 years old Antoine Duléry Audrey Tautou Aurore Clément Benoît Magimel Bouli Lanners Cassiopée Mayance Daniel Duval Isabelle Carré Marie-Ange Casta Nicolas Briançon

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Through different eyes

Cinephile Looks at script, editing and directing choices; keeps a distance from formula films.

Adapted from Olivier Adam's novel, Headwinds is a drama built around an absence, and it faces the hard test of such films: what do you fill the space with when the person at the centre of the story is gone? Lespert's answer is to shift the weight onto Paul's guilt and his fatherhood, which gives the film a calm, inward spine. My reservation is about the second part: once the family returns to Saint-Malo, the reckoning with the past and the new surprises pile up and the focus scatters. A supporting cast this large and well known risks feeling crowded rather than rich in such a narrow story. A well-made film about loss and grief that never quite pulls the novel's material together.

Family Viewer Asks whether the whole household can watch it; cares about humour and heart.

A story in which a mother simply disappears one day and the father is left alone with two small children. It may be too heavy for young kids; the theme of a missing mother could frighten them. For teenagers and adults, though, it's a quiet, touching film about the bond between a father and his children. Don't expect action or laughs; it suits a calm evening.

History & Society Lens Asks about the period, the social background and what the work reflects.

The film centres on a father left alone who has to carry childcare, money worries and his own guilt all at once, a family portrait that puts the burden of care on the man's shoulders and is less often told for that reason. The move from the Paris home to the house in Saint-Malo left by his father is telling too: when savings run out, the place one falls back on is again a roof inherited from family. That the return from the city to his hometown can be read as both a defeat and a fresh start takes the film beyond a story of loss.

These are not reader reviews: they are short editorial takes written from different viewer perspectives with AI assistance. Reader reviews are below.

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