From the director of IDA, winner of the Oscar for Best Foreign Language Film (2014), comes a passionate drama of Wiktor and Zula, star-crossed lovers (based on the filmmaker’s parents), who move from Soviet-dominated Poland to the jazz clubs of Paris and back again over a 15-year period, beginning in 1949. Writes Jonathan Romney: “COLD WAR revels in cinematic glamour. As Wiktor, Tomasz Kot embodies a stormy-browed artistic masculinity, while as the mercurial, powerfully sexual Zula, too earthy and complex to be an off-the-peg femme fatale, Joanna Kulig... gives a vibrant performance that many critics have suggested with more than a sigh of nostalgia, marks her out as a new Jeanne Moreau.” (Sight + Sound)

POLAND     2018    90 MINS   IN POLISH AND FRENCH WITH ENGLISH SUBTITLES

AMAZON STUDIOS

Reviews

“A whirlwind, border-hopping amour fou in gorgeous black and white. Much of the film is a thrilling seductive musical, shot and edited with the rhythm of dance; but the surface whirl would not fascinate without the luminous presence of Joanna Kulig, a Jeanne Moreau for our times. I loved it.”
– Nick James, Sight + Sound

“Kulig, as effervescent in her own way as the young Jeanne Moreau, is the film’s life force.”
– Tim Robey, Telegraph (UK)

“This is a movie of the flesh, not the spirit. Pawlikowski is a lyrical, mysterious filmmaker with a ravishing visual sense.”
– Steve Pond, The Wrap

“Mysterious, musically glorious and visually ravishing… epic in scope. The musical ensemble performances are staggering - brilliant choreographed and filmed.”
– Peter Bradshaw, The Guardian (UK)

“Glorious. Made with a verve and lyricism which rekindles memories of the glory days of European New Wave cinema.  Invokes memories of Milos Forman, Jiri Menzel, and Francois Truffaut at the start of their careers. Never loses its intimate and playful quality (and) retains a quiet humour throughout.”
– George McNab, The Independent (UK)

“Glorious, sophisticated film-making. Pawlikowski’s camera feels thrillingly liquid.”
– Finn Halligan, Screen International

“A transfixing miniature. The cold war at the center of this restless, ellipsis-filed film is one between heart not territories. Wholly riveting to watch, Kulig rifles through moods and attitudes with the casual magnetism of a young Jeanne Moreau, or even a Euro Jennifer Lawrence. The lovingly handpicked soundtrack, ranging from darkly mesmerizing folks curiosities to torchy blues standards to a climatic, ethereal wave of Glenn Gould-interpreted Bach. A film crafted with almost eerie exactitude across the board… (with) finely wrought black-and-white compositions, each frame an exquisite tile of milk-and-malt melancholy.”
– Guy Lodge, Variety

“Bittersweet and unbearably lovely.”
– Leslie Felperin, The Hollywood Reporter

“Musically rich. A sparely told, intimately black-and-white drama that uses ellipsis and suggestion to squeeze it complex zigzagging narrative into a taut but emotionally resonant 88 minutes. A moving, mature drama about modern European history, the vagaries of art in a political world and the ways in which love can find itself contending with pressures of the state. COLD WAR revels in cinematic glamour. Kulig gives a vibrant performance.”​
– Jonathan Romney, Sight + Sound

Trailer