Watch Anytime • Virtual Screening Room: BEANPOLE

BEANPOLE
Available to your home theater through the Olympia Film Society
Streaming tickets now available!
In post-WWII Leningrad, two women, Iya and Masha (astonishing newcomers Viktoria Miroshnichenko and Vasilisa Perelygina), intensely bonded after fighting side by side as anti-aircraft gunners, attempt to readjust to a haunted world. As the film begins, Iya, long and slender and towering over everyone—hence the film’s title—works as a nurse in a shell-shocked hospital, presiding over traumatized soldiers. A shocking accident brings them closer and also seals their fates. The 28-year-old Russian director Kantemir Balagov won Un Certain Regard’s Best Director prize at this year’s Cannes Film Festival for this richly burnished, occasionally harrowing rendering of the persistent scars of war.
Dir: Kantemir Balagov / 2020 / Russia / 137 min

“Not only is Beanpole one of the first essential cinematic works released in theaters this year, it is also among the most involving character studies in recent memory.” – Matt Fagerholm, RogerEbert.com

“Extraordinary performances and “Roma”-level production design elevate a brutal yet tender story of two women in post-war Leningrad.” – David Ehrlich, indieWire

“They can’t look away. Neither may you.” – Ty Burr, Boston Globe