SECOND SCREEN
The Polish-born but UK-based director Pawel Pawlikowski’s latest, Cold War (15A) ★★★★, which won him the Best Director prize at Cannes this year, is a beautifully made film that lingers. It’s made in Polish, shot in black and white and set in the long aftermath of the Second World War as Poland became a communist satellite of the Soviet Union. With the art of the people rather than an intellectual elite favoured by the new regime, handsome Wicktor (Tomasz Kot), a talented musician, is put in joint charge of auditions for a new state-run school for folk music and dance.
It’s there he spots the beautiful Zula, beginning a turbulent love affair that has to overcome defection, separation, marriage and even imprisonment along the way. If the sudden unresolved ending disappoints it’s only because we’d like the whole thing to go on much longer.
Idris Elba is a fine actor and all the signs are that he could be a decent filmmaker too as he makes his debut with Yardie (16) ★★★, a gritty thriller that follows D (Aml Ameen, pictured), a young, small-time Jamaican criminal, as he travels in 1983 from Kingston, Jamaica, to London.
He’s supposed to be delivering cocaine but when he takes exception to the intended buyer, he decides to go into business himself.
The uncompromising Jamaican accents may limit its commercial appeal but Ameen is good, the soundtrack terrific and Stephen Graham extraordinary as a white gangster (Graham’s grandfather was Jamaican) affecting a Jamaican accent because he thinks it makes him sound cool. Would be funny if it wasn’t quite so frightening.
Using the same gimmick as the Unfriended franchise,
Searching (12A) ★★★ unfolds almost entirely on a PC screen, as a young teenager goes missing and her father (John Cho) has to break into her online life to find her. The tech savvy displayed by a middle-aged man will intimidate many but it’s the dramatic far-fetched late twist that does the damage.