Beanpole
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In post-WWII Leningrad, two women, Iya and Masha (astonishing
newcomers Viktoria Miroshnichenko and Vasilisa Perelygina),
intensely bonded after fighting side by side as anti-aircraft
gunners, attempt to readjust to a haunted world. As the film begins,
Iya, long and slender and towering over everyone (hence the film’s
title), works as a nurse in a shell-shocked hospital, presiding over
traumatized soldiers. A shocking accident brings them closer and
also seals their fates. The 28-year-old Russian director Kantemir
Balagov won Un Certain Regard’s Best Director prize at the Cannes
Film Festival for this richly burnished, occasionally harrowing
rendering of the persistent scars of war.