Reports by our selectors from the Cannes Festival
(14-25 May 2019)
Marcin Pieńkowski from the Cannes Festival:
At only 28 years of age, Kantemir Balagov has proven that he is an extraordinary talent. Screened in the Un Certain Regard section (why not the competition?), Beanpole tells the story of a difficult relationship between two girls in post-war Leningrad. It’s a film about trauma but also about the constant, ecstatic dance of life and death. The film has a different sort of energy than Closeness. Rather than rebelling, the protagonists in this case try to get back to normalcy. Like the entire city. But their wounds haven’t healed, and nothing around them is able to wake up from the strange postwar lethargy. A visually stunning, powerful, overwhelming film with an excellent cast, it shows the scale of Balagov's talent. He is sure to join—if he hasn’t already—other Russian masters like Zvyagintsev.
The New Horizons Association will be the film’s distributor.