A Cooler Climate

In 1960, filmmaker James Ivory took a trip to Afghanistan to shoot scenes for a documentary that would remotely resemble THE DELHI WAY (1964), which he had previously shot in New Delhi. But the film was never completed, and the footage gathered dust in a box for 60 years.

In 2022, at the age of 94, Ivory decided to re-screen this unique footage, now using it as the framework for a new documentary, and in doing so, also taking a look at himself in his younger years to decipher how this life-changing journey, far from his home state of Oregon, helped him to become the famous filmmaker he is today.

The wonderful, colorful footage is a reverie as Ivory looks back on his life as a traveler, outsider, and artist. Switching constantly between the incredible scenes he shot as a curious visitor in Kabul and Bamiyan, and his own personal story, Ivory—with co-director Giles Gardner and music by Alexandre Desplat—has created a film about the journeys we all take. Journeys around the world and journeys into our innermost realms.