Cold War – The La­ti­tu­de of Love

The title suggests it: the drama is about a love story between East and West. After the end of the war, the composer and conductor Wiktor is commissioned to search for folkloristic cultural assets in rural areas of Poland. What he finds, however, is great and fateful love in the form of the singer Zula. In the course of their joint musical project, they grow closer, but the political tension forces them to make a momentous decision. Even when the two are separated, Wiktor and Zula cannot get away from each other."But Pawlikowski is not so concerned with the 'what', but above all with the 'how', considering the well-thought-out composition of his film. His film has a formal and narrative rigor which, unexpectedly antithetical, allows the audience a great deal of freedom. Pawlikowski does not prescribe emotions and does not overwhelm his story with pathos and overwhelming dramaturgy. Rather, he gives his characters and Łukasz Żal's images concentrated space. The director and his cameraman established the visual style - 4:3, black and white - in ‹Ida› (2013), his first film made after a long absence from Poland. In ‹Cold War›, however, the images appear to have much greater contrast, long and clearly framed shots are replaced by elegiac camera movements. The aesthetic reflects the sobriety of the Cold War, but also the melancholy of a futile love story.» (Sedat Aslan, arteschock.de)