BEANPOLE

BEANPOLE (DYLDA), 2019
Russia | DCP, Color, 130’ | Russian
Director: Kantemir Balagov
Cast: Konstantin Balakirev, Andrey Bykov, Olga Dragunova

Beanpole depicts the mental and physical devastation of war in the post-World War II Leningrad in 1945. Following the two women, the film illustrates how war can destroy, not only buildings but human relationships, family ties, and even perceptions of gender and identities. In Beanpole, Balagov utilizes a claustrophobic visual language similar to the one he used in his earlier film Closeness (Tesnota) to portray the trauma war inflicts on the survivors, particularly on the women. After having won the FIPRESCI prize at the Cannes Film Festival in 2017 for his film Closeness, the young director won the same prize for the second time with Beanpole, this time also winning the Best Director Award in the Un Certain Regard category at Cannes in 2019.