United States of Love

classified 18 S
Film

Please note: This was screened in Nov 2016

Director
Tomas Wasilewski
Cast
Julia Kijowska, Magdalena Cielecka, Dorota Kolak
Details
106 mins, Subtitled, 2016, Poland/Sweden

Winner of the Silver Bear for Best Screenplay at this year's Berlinale, Polish director Tomasz Wasilewski's (Floating Skyscrapers) searing drama follows four women of different generations struggling with love and loneliness in Poland during the aftermath of Communism.

It’s 1990. The Soviet bloc is falling apart and the winds of change are blowing in Poland. After years of stagnation Polish society is trying to redefine itself and in a small provincial town there is euphoria in the air but also fear about what lies ahead. Here we follow the intricately crosscutting stories of four apparently happy women who decide it’s time to change their lives: a young mother trapped in an unhappy marriage, an older teacher fascinated with her neighbour, a lonely former beauty queen, and a headmistress in love with the father of one of her students.

Shot in desaturated colours, this visceral film investigates a society caught between the death throes of an old world and the as yet unrealised appeal of a new one. A stunning exploration of longing, it cements Wasilewski’s reputation as an expert chronicler of the despondent and heir apparent to Fassbinder as one of cinema's most ruthless observers of human nature.


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