28-year-old writer-director Kantemir Balagov shocked and astonished many at Cannes just two years ago with his startlingly assured debut feature, “Closeness,” which won a FIPRESCI prize in the Un Certain Regard section. He returns in UCR selection again, with another challenging and bleak statement set in his native Russia, and has earned the section’s Best Director prize for his efforts.
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In “Beanpole,” Balagov focuses his vision on a post-WWII world where two female friends, fresh off the battlefield where they fought as soldiers, try to cope with the severe PTSD inflicted on them by the war. It’s a frigid, but nonetheless fascinating, film which confirms Balagov as a significant young talent.
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Mostly set in a war-torn post-Leningrad hospital and its street banks, “Beanpole” depicts Iya (Viktoria Miroshnichenko) not only suffering from a concussion inflicted while fighting as a soldier on the frontlines for Russia during a just-ended WWII, but also saddled with taking care of Pashka, her friend Masha’s (Vasilisa Perelygina), newborn infant. As Masha is away, trying to put a few things in order, Iya has to take care of the child and also work in a bleak Leningrad hospital, where wounded soldiers recover from the debilitating injuries they suffered in the war zones.
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Prone to sudden fits of paralysis,, where her muscles lock up, and she loses the total control and ability to move, Iya is not the best fit for motherly duties. This disorder culminates in a harrowing scene where— she plays with the baby on the floor of her dingy apartment— Iya accidentally suffocates Pashka to death in one of her disabled and petrified episodes. However, when Masha comes back and is told by her friend that her son is dead she, quite curiously, shrugs it off, merely laughing and telling Iya that she now “owes” her a life.
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The title of the film is derived from the nickname given to Iya at the hospital, “Beanpole.” She is a very tall blonde woman, with the lightest of eyebrows, that reminds her cohorts of a giraffe. A towering presence whenever standing next to anybody, her imposing figure cannot hide the lack of mental clarity from which she suffers.
The same evening she discovers her son has died, Masha decides that the women should go out on the town, in the empty nightlife of Leningrad to look for men. They find two teenagers, and Masha ends up in the backseat with the shy one, almost threateningly imposing sexual intercourse on him. The goal is to have another child, to replace Pashka, but later she is told by doctors that, much to her ignorance, the fact that her two ovaries were removed during war surgery means she can’t ever have a child again. Enter her forceful insinuation that, because she owes her a life, Iya must bear a child for her.
Balagov’s detached post-war film was adapted by co-writers Balagov and Aleksandr Terekhov from Svetlana Alexievich’s book, “The Unwomanly Face of War.” Morose in tone and glacially paced, its a severe watch at times, but Balagov depicts the story’s impending doom with a clear sense of aesthetic choices. Iya and Masha’s friendship is toxic; they both want to restore a sense of purpose to their lives, but Iya prevents her bestie from finding any salvation because she is responsible for her son’s death. As the world they live in continues to crumble, there is an almost detached sense of reality from Masha’s perspective, having probably seen some of the worst horrors imaginable as a soldier. Practically nothing deters her now.
Clearly influenced by the austere Romanian new wave, the film’s realist but minimalist style sometimes feels like a little too much. But the young filmmaker is wise enough to craft in some respite too. For all the tense moments Balagov creates in the film, and there are many, he also adds dark humorous touches like one in an afternoon lunch near the climax of the film. But he also has a knack for letting scenes run far too long; almost too in-love with the shots he uses. Regardless, his ambitions are lofty, and his potential as an even more celebrated filmmaker is entirely on display in “Beanpole.” It helps that Perelygina delivers a brilliant performance in her first movie role — she far outshines her co-leads quieter but nevertheless nuanced performance. In a film that is so disinterested to conforming to accustomed mainstream movie audiences taste and rhythms, and is committed to its sometimes difficult choices, the bold and exacting “Beanpole” sometimes feels damn-near radical. [B+]