February 4 - 11, 2020
DIRECTED BY KANTEMIR BALAGOV
1:00 3:50 6:45 9:30
Critics hailing the second film by 27-year-old Russian director Kantemir Balagov describe it as “intense,” “intimate,” and “rewarding” (The Hollywood Reporter) and as “ferocious and extraordinary,” during which “you quite often have to remind yourself to breathe” (Variety). Two young women (one so tall and slender she’s referred to as Beanpole) are nurses in a Leningrad hospital, immediately following the end of World War II. A film about relationships between broken people, living in a ravaged nation after a catastrophic war – BEANPOLE exudes deep empathy for its characters in the face of many obstacles fate has thrown in their path. This is a film about Russian history and the Russian soul, about overcoming loss and inventing new ways to get through each day. Balagov is a major talent who has only just begun to make his mark.
BEANPOLE is Russia’s official submission to the 2020 Academy Awards® for Best International Film.
Presented with support from the R.G. Rifkind Foundation Endowment for Queer Cinema.