Title: Cold War
MPAA Rating: R
Director: Pawel Pawlikowski
Starring: Joanna Kulig, Tomasz Kot, Borys Szyc
Runtime: 1 hr 28 mins

What It Is: When a music conductor named Wiktor (Kot) falls in love with the beautiful and talented singer Zula (Kulig) in 1949 Poland. In this post-WWII Poland once you’ve escaped there is no coming back. Wiktor does escape to Paris and he helps Zula also do so. Through time and distance, the two find that they are meant for one and other. As they mature so too does their affection for each other. All told in dour black and white.

What We Think: Pawel Pawlikowski is an artist of movement. Whether it’s how his characters move within a scene or how he moves a camera through it everything always feels alive and always feel breathing. His leads give performances that cut to the bone and the choice of black and white was a good one. One Pawlikowski has used before, in Ida and to great effect. This is a real contender for Best Foreign Film alongside the front runner Roma. I think that this is certainly one of the best of the year without any doubt in my mind.

Our Grade: A-, This is a stunner worth your time! A film I’m still thinking about a few days after witnessing it. This is one that I think will resonate more as time goes on. It’s a love story that transcends time. I cannot do anything else but recommend this film, to you and everyone else. If you can get past all the things that most audiences hate…like a black and white film…with subtitles…that’s in four different languages. If you can get over all that you are for sure in for a treat. A beautiful film that does everything well. Direction, cinematography, script structure, all of it.