A POETIC DOCUMENTARY
about endurance, trauma & surrender.
How do you win, when the thing holding you back… is inside you?
The wind is not Elena’s greatest opponent—it’s something buried deep within. In the documentary
THE WIND IN HER HANDS, 21-year-old Elena fights to qualify for the Olympic Games in IQ Foil Windsurfing. She must master the wind—but only by surrendering to it can she truly find herself again.
Is it a windsurfing film?
Not Really.
SYNOPSIS
The wind is both force and resistance. THE WIND IN HER HANDS is the debut feature documentary by Jonas Nellissen about 21-year-old Elena, who is trying to qualify for the Olympic Games in IQ Foil Windsurfing - an almost impossible goal, as she first lifted off the water on a foil just three years ago. As she learns to trust the wind, she must face a far greater challenge, buried deep within.
Her relentless ambition has brought her success before. Control was always her strategy - and her shield. A fine line between discipline and self-sabotage. The eating disorder she recently survived is just one of many waves crashing over her. But there is something else: a moment when self-determination was no longer an option, a trauma submerged in the depths. The wind propels her forward, but it also stirs up what was long forgotten. The body remembers what the mind refuses to. A storm that cannot be halted.
Only when Elena stops fighting the wind can she find her balance—and stand her ground in competition. And suddenly, a new path to Olympic qualification emerges, one never seen before in this discipline.
A powerful coming-of-age story about the razor-thin line between great ambition and Self-denial - and the liberating freedom that comes from letting go of control.
Who has seen the wind?
Neither I nor you:
But when the leaves hang trembling,
The wind is passing through.
- from "Who Has Seen the Wind?” by Christina Rossetti
Narrative Style
FROM BREEZE TO STORM
While flying over the water, the wind becomes the narrator, returning throughout the film.
THE WIND IN HER HANDS is a cinematic journey into the life of a young woman striving to qualify for the Olympic Games in windsurfing while battling inner demons and traumatic experiences. Shot in an intimate, observational style yet with poetic imagery, the film’s recurring symmetrical and static compositions reflect the harsh conditions she must adapt to and the thoughts she cannot escape. This visual approach is disrupted in moments of crisis, when she faces her conflicts head-on—then, a handheld camera follows her, isolating her. Slowly the film pulls you in emotionally and cultivates a heartwarming melancholy in a story of departure. Additionally, a poetic layer allows the wind to become a narrator, merging with Elena’s experience.
ABOUT THE PRODUCTION
FORMAT
80 min.
DCI Flat 1,85
Color
LANGUAGE
German & English
with Subtitles
(OC or CC)
COUNTRY OF PRODUCTION
Germany
SHOT IN
Netherlands
Spain
France
Switzerland