Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind is a thorny film without easy answers, as film historian and cultural critic Paul T. Klein and Tristan find. Their conversation does, however, attempt to plumb the depths of the pacifist, environmental, and feminist messages woven throughout the arresting images of Hayao Miyazaki’s 1984 classic.

Paul writes at howtoreadmovies.com and co-hosts the Cold War Cinema podcast.