Cold War’s stunning love story

Cold War (M, 89 mins) Directed by Pawel Pawlikowski Reviewed by Graeme Tuckett ★★★★★

Cold War is a love story. However, it’s a love story set across physical and emotional landscapes that do not lend themselves easily to the passions and obsessions of the human players.

Wiktor (Tomasz Kot) is a musical director and musician touring the snow-covered Polish countryside in the years immediately after World War II, looking for songs and music to maybe incorporate in a show.

Next to him, the quiet and watchful Irena (Agata Kulesza) records and observes. A government functionary with some ill-defined but sinister purpose shadows the pair everywhere, making his own recordings, hinting at strife to come.

When the beautiful and soulful Zula (Joanna Kulig) strides into Wiktor’s orbit, he is immediately smitten.

What follows is a decade-long ricochet across Europe, as the starcrossed pair tries to find a city and a place within themselves where they might be able to pause and allow their affair to grow.

I loved this film and these people. I loved their insecurities, uncertainties, passions and the way that music is a constant companion and guiding force in their lives.

The soundtrack in Cold War is not in the background to be merely heard. Music is pushed to the front of the film, to be listened to and travelled with. While Zula contemplates Wiktor after a brief but telling argument, Billie Holiday’s The Man I Love is on the radio. The pair fall in love – incontrovertibly – to Louis Jordan’s Is You Is or Is You Ain’t My Baby.

Most film-makers struggle for one perfect on-screen moment in their careers. Pawel Pawlikowski