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At the end of director Amel Guellaty\u2019s debut feature, \u201cWhere the Wind Comes From,\u201d our protagonist, Mehdi, writes a letter to his best friend Alyssa after their days-long, spontaneous road trip throughout the film. \u201cI feel like everything goes slowly without you,\u201d we hear him say in a voiceover. Immediately, I thought of late-night drives and sunny beach visits with my friends, of all the moments in my life that I\u2019ve loved and cherished with my loved ones.<\/p>\n
Ever since I first watched it in Cinetopia 2025, \u201cWhere the Wind Comes From\u201d is the first movie that comes to mind whenever someone brings up the concept of platonic love. Set in post-Arab Spring<\/a> Tunisia, the film follows two childhood best friends \u2014\u00a0the unruly 19-year-old Alyssa (Eya Bellagha, \u201cHarga\u201d) and the bashful 23-year-old Mehdi (Slim Baccar, \u201cStreams\u201d). Bitter about the dysfunctional state of their families and hometown, the two embark on a road trip to Djerba for Mehdi\u2019s art competition, an opportunity to make a large sum of easy cash that would allow them to escape from Tunisia like they\u2019ve always wanted.<\/p>\n