Critic Rating
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Director
Kantemir Balagov
Cast
Viktoriya Miroshnichenko,
Vasilisa Perelygina,
Konstantin Balakirev,
Kseniya Kutepova,
Olga Dragunova,
Andrey Bykov
Genre
Drama
During World War II, the siege of Leningrad is finally over, but its inhabitants are left to pick up the pieces alone. This drama zooms in on two young women, traumatized, who struggle to rebuild their lives among the wreckage of the shaken city. A war movie about what happens after battle.
The New York Times by Manohla Dargis
This is only the second feature from the sensationally talented Russian director Kantemir Balagov (who was born in 1991), and it’s a gut punch. It’s also a brilliantly told, deeply moving story about love — in all its manifestations, perversity and obstinacy.
The Irish Times by Tara Brady
Each sequence of the film springs a fresh horror and a new intrigue.
Variety by Jessica Kiang
Beanpole is incredibly bleak, but crafted with such care that it’s also deeply compelling. Events so disturbing that you long to look away are presented in images so striking that you cannot.
The A.V. Club by Katie Rife
Even thought it’s a bleak and uncompromising film, it’d be unfair to call Beanpole “misery porn.” The questions it’s asking are much more complicated, and more cutting, than that.
The Playlist by Jordan Ruimy
In a film that is so disinterested to conforming to accustomed mainstream movie audiences taste and rhythms, and is committed to its sometimes difficult choices, the bold and exacting Beanpole sometimes feels damn-near radical.
IndieWire by David Ehrlich
Beanpole is slow to thaw, and its emotional impact is dulled by a structure that delays the story’s full power until the final moments, but there’s a resonant beauty to how these women seize control over their themselves.
Film Threat by Lorry Kikta
I wholeheartedly recommend this film as a glimpse into the effects of war on female soldiers, and also as an opportunity to see WWII from a perspective that isn’t American. It has some devastating scenes, which makes sense considering the subject matter, but it also has a faint glimpse of hope that makes the film all the more worth watching.
The Hollywood Reporter by Todd McCarthy
It’s a demanding sit, a film both rigorous and indulgent, rewarding and aggravating.
Slant Magazine by Jake Cole
Kantemir Balagov depicts pain in blunt terms, but he traces the aftershocks of coping and collapse with delicate subtlety.
Screen Daily by Jonathan Romney
The film displays intense emotional seriousness and is finely performed and directed; but further shaping could have revealed the more focused work that’s begging to emerge.
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