Review: Startling Drama 'Beanpole' is Blunt and Beautiful

The horrors of war may have disappeared with time, but they'll never shrink away in the mind of those affected. This is the kind of thematic through-line that runs through "Beanpole," a startling drama from Kantemir Balagov.

When the film was released earlier this year, it garnered many an acclaim for its bleak subject matter and tender attention to the pains of women left broken by World War II. While I agree with many of those critiques, everything is fashioned in such a blunt manner in the film that, at times, it can feel overwhelming and on the nose.

Yet, that doesn't take away from what Balagov and the two main actresses have achieved here. There's a sweeping sense of beauty in "Beanpole" that negates many of the downtrodden aspects, like the constant reminder that female soldiers were left by the wayside in their respective countries after the war. Kino Lorber brings the film to Blu-ray with a great video transfer that properly showcases the gorgeous cinematography and settings used.

Iya (Viktoria Miroshnichenko) is a towering, almost translucent woman working as a nurse in a Leningrad hospital after World War II. When her closest friend from the war, Masha (Vasilisa Perelygina), looks her up, only to find a terrible accident has occurred and reassurance is nowhere to be found, the two women are inexplicably bound by trauma and despair. But Masha hatches a plan to get rid of the baggage that Iya carries. Naturally, not everything goes according to plan.

"Beanpole" takes place in drab and deteriorating locales, as this area of Russia was forced to rebuild after so much destruction. Many of the soldiers who returned from war were either badly wounded or so shaken by the events that it sent them into a deep state of depression and paralyzing fear. We see a story of a soldier mentally unfit to return to normal society and begging the doctor to end his misery, with his poor wife standing by, paralyzed by having no power to alleviate her husband's many ailments. To many at this time, the choice was to either grin and bear your wounds while returning to the poverty you once lived in, or put a stop to things by committing suicide.

It's a desperate state of affairs to try and depict, but Balagov is visually assured even though this is only his second feature film. I was personally stunned to watch Viktoria Miroshnichenko and Vasilisa Perelygina, both first-time actresses, give so much interior life to their characters. Every movement feels meaningful. As for special features on the Blu-ray, there's a brief interview with director Kantemir Balagov that will give you a bit more insight into why he wanted to make the film. You should watch "Beanpole" whichever way you can. Other special features include:

� Trailers

"Beanpole"
Blu-ray
$29.95
https://www.kinolorber.com/product/beanpole-blu-ray