LOVE IN A COLD CLIMATE AND SECRETS OF THE OFFICIAL KIND
Two of the films on offer at the European Union Film Festival are reviewed by
Since he won the Oscar for Tsotsi, South African director Gavin Hood has made several Hollywood films that focus on political corruption at the highest levels and ask difficult questions about the world in the post-9/11 era, from Rendition (2007) to Eye in the Sky (2015). In Official Secrets he examines the true story of British intelligence worker Katharine Gun, who, faced with a directive from the government to help concoct information to support the US’s efforts to push the UN Security Council into sanctioning the 2003 invasion of Iraq, decided to leak the information and face the consequences.
Featuring a career-best performance from Keira Knightley in the title role and a star-studded cast that includes Ralph Fiennes, Matthew Goode and Rhys Ifans, it’s a slow-burning but edge-of-your seat tale of behind-the-scenes intrigue and dastardly machinations that reminds us that nobody, even those who make it, is above the law.
Relying on solid old school suspense and the creation of nerve-racking tension out of mundane activities such as checking computers and printing out documents, it’s a tough and piercing interrogation of the ways in which so many of those in power will sacrifice their morals, with far-reaching consequences for the world.
With Cold War, Polish director Pawel Pawlikowski proves once again that he’s the master of understated, emotionally satisfying big-question human drama.
Beginning in the aftermath of World War 2 in communist Poland, this stark black and white bittersweet love story tells the rocky, tumultuous and passionate tale of folk music director Wiktor (Tomasz Kot) who falls hard for enigmatic and beautiful singer Zula (Joanna Kulig).
As the fortunes of their folk ensemble change and they are brought under pressure from the authorities, the two lovers must make life-changing decisions that threaten to split them apart. Somehow they manage to find each other again, across the years and in spite of the turmoil around them.
Like the smitten Wiktor, the audience is kept in a constant state of hope and despair as we pray that love will conquer all.
Pawlikowski’s genius is in his restrained handling of the material and his use of a stark visual palette that replicates the cold nature of the world in which the story is set, while still allowing for the bursts of passion that define the difficult relationship at its centre. It’s a heartfelt and heartbreaking tale of two people fighting the feelings they have for each other, and the forces beyond their control that push them together and apart, and hopefully together again.
‘Official Secrets’ and ‘Cold War’ screen as part of the European Union Film Festival at Cinema Nouveau in Johannesburg, Pretoria and Cape Town from November 29 to December 8. See eurofilmfest.co.za