Captivated by the comrades in arms

THIS sumptuous Polish-language picture, also out now, deservedly landed Pawel Pawlikowski, born in Warsaw but raised in the UK, the Best Director award at Cannes.

Shot in black and white, and lasting only 84 minutes, it is the exquisitely-told tale of a decades-long love affair that defies boundaries of class and age, as well as post-war tensions between East and West.

It opens in 1949, in rural and already staunchly Communist Poland. Wiktor (Tomasz Kot) is a middle-aged musical director auditioning young men and women for a troupe of singers and dancers intended to showcase the country’s folk music traditions. Among those auditioning is the feisty, pretty, altogether beguiling Zula (Joanna Kulig).

Wiktor is instantly smitten. Soon they are lovers, and he helps to turn her into a celebrated solo artist. The story follows them, via East Berlin, Paris and Poland again, with the misery and paranoia of state Communism as the backdrop, up to 1964.

If Pawlikowski had really indulged himself, Cold War could have easily run to a Dr Zhivago-like three hours plus. By telling his absorbing story in less than an hour and a half, he shows what a consummate filmmaker he is.