After winning Karlovy Vary in 2013 with “Floating Skyscrapers”, Polish helmer Tomasz Wasilewski wins the 2016 Best Screenplay Silver Bear in Berlin with “United States of Love”, a four-storyline drama focusing on the various degrees of love in post-communist Poland.
A fixed POV shot at a dining table, during a dinner among friends, introduces to the audience the main characters, whose love lives are entwined in a harrowing recount of what it meant to transition from the stagnating Soviet bloc to a Western lifestyle, spearheaded by capitalism. Agata fell for her priest and this obsessive, preposterous, one-sided love compromised her marriage and led her to act irrationally. Iza is the headmistress at the school where Agata enrolled her daughter. She has a secret affair with a married doctor but a dramatic event puts their relationship on hold. Iza’s sister, Marzena, is an aerobics instructor and former beauty queen going through the throes of a long-distance marriage. She becomes the object of sexual desire for her neighbour Renata, a retired school teacher.
Set in an undefined Polish town dominated by concrete apartment blocks, “United States of Love” examines the private consequences of the social, cultural and, consequently, psychological repression women suffered during the Soviet occupation. The all-female cast is first rate and the immersive cinematography, bolstered by a muted palette of tints and ivory whites, paints a dreary, bleak picture of a society on the brink of change but not yet able to fully obtain the Western freedom they are daily exposed to.
Giampietro Balia
United States of Love
Zjednoczone stany milosci
K12
Genre
Drama
Director
Tomasz Wasilewski
Run time
1h 44min
Cast
Julia Kijowska, Magdalena Cielecka, Dorota Kolak
Genre
Drama
Director
Tomasz Wasilewski
Run time
1h 44min
Cast
Julia Kijowska, Magdalena Cielecka, Dorota Kolak
After winning Karlovy Vary in 2013 with “Floating Skyscrapers”, Polish helmer Tomasz Wasilewski wins the 2016 Best Screenplay Silver Bear in Berlin with “United States of Love”, a four-storyline drama focusing on the various degrees of love in post-communist Poland.
A fixed POV shot at a dining table, during a dinner among friends, introduces to the audience the main characters, whose love lives are entwined in a harrowing recount of what it meant to transition from the stagnating Soviet bloc to a Western lifestyle, spearheaded by capitalism. Agata fell for her priest and this obsessive, preposterous, one-sided love compromised her marriage and led her to act irrationally. Iza is the headmistress at the school where Agata enrolled her daughter. She has a secret affair with a married doctor but a dramatic event puts their relationship on hold. Iza’s sister, Marzena, is an aerobics instructor and former beauty queen going through the throes of a long-distance marriage. She becomes the object of sexual desire for her neighbour Renata, a retired school teacher.
Set in an undefined Polish town dominated by concrete apartment blocks, “United States of Love” examines the private consequences of the social, cultural and, consequently, psychological repression women suffered during the Soviet occupation. The all-female cast is first rate and the immersive cinematography, bolstered by a muted palette of tints and ivory whites, paints a dreary, bleak picture of a society on the brink of change but not yet able to fully obtain the Western freedom they are daily exposed to.
Giampietro Balia
A fixed POV shot at a dining table, during a dinner among friends, introduces to the audience the main characters, whose love lives are entwined in a harrowing recount of what it meant to transition from the stagnating Soviet bloc to a Western lifestyle, spearheaded by capitalism. Agata fell for her priest and this obsessive, preposterous, one-sided love compromised her marriage and led her to act irrationally. Iza is the headmistress at the school where Agata enrolled her daughter. She has a secret affair with a married doctor but a dramatic event puts their relationship on hold. Iza’s sister, Marzena, is an aerobics instructor and former beauty queen going through the throes of a long-distance marriage. She becomes the object of sexual desire for her neighbour Renata, a retired school teacher.
Set in an undefined Polish town dominated by concrete apartment blocks, “United States of Love” examines the private consequences of the social, cultural and, consequently, psychological repression women suffered during the Soviet occupation. The all-female cast is first rate and the immersive cinematography, bolstered by a muted palette of tints and ivory whites, paints a dreary, bleak picture of a society on the brink of change but not yet able to fully obtain the Western freedom they are daily exposed to.
Giampietro Balia
Info
Rating
Under 12 Not Allowed
Production year
2016
Global distributor
New Europe Film Sales
Local distributor
Menufilmid OÜ
In cinema
12/22/2016