Beanpole 2019

Dylda

Directed by Kantemir Balagov

Talented Russian filmmaker Kantemir Balagov won Best Director at Cannes (Un Certain Regard) for this hugely impressive account of post-war Leningrad, and the friendship of two women at its devastated centre.

Russia In Russian with English subtitles
137 minutes DCP
M
Sex scenes, nudity & content that may disturb

Director

Producers

Alexander Rodnyansky
,
Sergey Melkumov

Screenplay

Kantemir Balagov
,
Alexander Terekhov

Photography

Ksenia Sereda

Editor

Igor Litoninskiy

Production designer

Sergey Ivanov

Costume designer

Olga Smirnova

Music

Evgueni Galperine

With

Viktoria Miroshnichenko (Iya)
,
Vasilisa Perelygina (Masha)
,
Timofey Glazkov (Pashka)
,
Andrey Bykov (Nikolay Ivanovich)
,
Igor Shirokov (Sasha)
,
Konstantin Balakirev (Stepan)
,
Ksenia Kutepova (Lyubov Petrovna)
,
Olga Dragunova (seamstress)

Festivals

Cannes (Un Certain Regard) 2019

Awards

Best Director (Un Certain Regard), Cannes Film Festival 2019

Elsewhere

Set in Leningrad, 1945, Beanpole explores the devastating aftermath of war – and of one of the worst sieges in history – through the emotionally shattering portrayal of two women as they struggle to adjust to civilian life in the ravaged city. Drawn from Svetlana Alexievich’s remarkable The Unwomanly Face of War chronicling the memories of Russian women who fought in WWII, this accomplished film is informed by an authenticity of lived experience, framed within a heightened mastery of cinematic craft. 

Iya, the ‘beanpole’ of the title, is a nurse at a hospital for patients suffering from wartime injuries. She is joined here by Masha, with whom she has an intense emotional bond, and whose young son she has been looking after while Masha was serving in the Red Army. Circumstances will have traumatic repercussions on their relationship and irredeemably shape their future…

“While Beanpole’s subject matter is lacerating… there’s a deep and inviting poetry to [Kantemir Balagov’s] mise-en-scène throughout, and his storytelling is unimpeachable for its reserve and delicacy. That poetry is to be found in the film’s extraordinarily tactile pictures… [and] in Balagov’s compositions too, which reframe our world in surprising, heartstopping ways… That Beanpole excels in so many discrete areas – we haven’t even spoken of its resourceful set design, or of Balagov’s assured direction of actors – is testament to the rigour and imagination of this gifted young director, whose psychological acuity and formal control over his sprawling story mark him as a valuable artist.” — Caspar Salmon, Sight & Sound