House of the Wind (2026) Movie Drinking Game
Take a Drink: for billowing curtains
Take a Drink: for sitting and waiting
Take a Drink: for bureaucratic stumbling blocks
Take a Drink: for zoom calls
Do a Shot: for hustles and lies
By: Henry J. Fromage (Two Beers) –
Venice does as good of a job as arguably any film festival at curating films from across the globe, featuring films from over 100 countries this year, including several for the first time. That’s not the case for Cameroon, which has a fine film-making tradition, but it’s entry fits in nicely with the global focus this year.
House of the Wind focuses on Josette (Josette Kwanya), an elderly widow living alone in a giant house. She has four children, but they all live and work abroad, and it’s clear the frequent zoom calls aren’t enough to manager her loneliness. One day she agrees to let a young woman, Sarah (Babetida Sadjo) live with her for a few days and pose as her mother to her imminently visiting French boyfriend.
A Toast
When we first meet her, Josette has a rather circumspect life- she lives alone in a huge house, zooms with her children frequently, and picks up money orders from primarily her eldest son, for whom she is overseeing the building of a new house. She not to subtly hints it’ll be ready for his return, and keeps putting dates on it that seem apparent to all but her that won’t come to fruition- these kids have clearly laid down a foundation abroad.
She’s not alone in this- she’s a part of a women’s loan association whose children all seem to be abroad as well, but there seems to be an element of pride that isolates her from any deeper relationship with anyone still in the country- at least until Sarah shows up, bringing a more unpredictable element to her life, but also a chance for the parental relationship she misses and may never get to experience again with her own children. The film balances these characters and their motivations nicely, and both actresses embody them well.
Director Auguste Bernard Kouemo Yanghu makes great use of the colorful, yet time-worn buildings lining these red earth Cameroonian streets, and the city vistas visible form Josette’s porch. They open up a film that otherwise understandably feels claustrophobic at times.
Beer Two
To say Josette is a bit incorrigible is understating things. She’s clearly used to being in control- it’s implied her late husband was a government official of some kind, ergo the massive house- and she’ll make bad decisions solely for the sake of appearances. Towards the end she makes one that is unforgivable despite the recognizable impulses underlying it. It’s understandable if you’re out on her character at that point, although hold on a bit longer- the film wraps on a better note than she perhaps deserves, but not an unbelievable one.
Verdict
House of the Wind is a well-acted and observed Cameroon-set story of two women who’ve at least half their hearts residing abroad.
