Trailer for Beanpole, starring Viktoria Miroshnichenko, Vasilisa Perelygina, Andrey Bykov, Igor Shirokov and Konstantin Balakirev.
In immediate 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 27-year-old Russian director Kantemir Balagov -- whose debut feature Closeness caused a stir at Cannes and the New Directors/New Films festival just last year -- won Un Certain Regard's Best Director prize at this year's Cannes Film Festival for this richly burnished, occasionally harrowing rendering of the persistent scars of war.