Pawel Pawlikowski followed his Oscar-winning ‘Ida’ with this stunning epic romance between two people of different backgrounds set against the backdrop of Europe after World War II.
Poland: Wiktor (Tomasz Kot) and Irena (Agata Kulesza) are recording folk songs – mournful tales of love, drink and hardship, raw and elemental. They come across Zula (Joanna Kulig) who soon joins their group. When Wiktor spies a chance to defect during a 1952 engagement in East Berlin, he begs Zula to come with him. But are her pragmatic priorities may not be in sync with his western-leaning dreams? Shot in luminous black and white, it is a wistful and dreamlike journey through a divided continent and a heart-breaking portrait of ill-fated love. For this film, Pawlikowski was awarded the Best Director prize at the 2018 Cannes Film Festival. We are screening this film to complement our Andrzej Wajda season – Poland’s eminent film director, putting a spotlight on the work of a contemporary polish director with very strong British connections. As Mark Kermode says of this film - “Unexpectedly put me in mind of ‘Casablanca’ or ‘La La Land’ as reimagined by Andrzej Wajda. (Subtitles)
Poland/UK/France 2018 Pawel Pawlikowski 89m
