Cold War

COLD WAR (ZIMNA WOJNA) (15)

D: Pawel Pawlikowski

Opus/Polish Film Institute/Film 4/MK2/BFI/Protagonist/Apocalypso (Tanya Seghatchian & Ewa Puszczynska)

Poland/France/UK 🇵🇱🇫🇷🇬🇧 2018

86 mins

Drama

W: Pawel Pawlikowski, Janusz Glowacki & Piotr Borkowski

DP: Lukasz Zal

Ed: Jaroslaw Kaminski

Joanna Kulig (Zula Lichon), Tomasz Kot (Wiktor Warski), Borys Szyc (Lech Kaczmarek), Agata Kulesza (Irena Bielecka), Jeanne Balibar (Juliette)

Despite being immaculately filmed and photographed, Cold War is a film I simply didn't warm to (no pun intended).

It's clearly a labour of love for Pawel Pawlikowski, who based the film loosely on his own parents relationship. The film follows a music teacher and a singer who escape from communist Poland into France, where their romance develops further.

The two lead performances are very good and the black and white cinematography is unbelievably crisp, but as much as I wanted to love this film, I just didn't.

This isn't a criticism on its quality. In fact, it's a film that my late grandfather (who was Polish) would have adored. It just wasn't for me.

6/10