United States Of Love review: Tomasz Wasilewski’s film is a revealing, intimate and compelling study of four women struggling.
United States Of Love review by Paul Heath, Berlin Film Festival, 2016. United States Of Love, or Zjednoczone Stany Milosci to give it its Polish title, is one of the last films to premiere at this year’s Berlin Film Festival.
The picture is set in 1990, which is immediately obvious from seeing the haircuts and clothes and hearing the Whitney Houston soundtrack. The film tells the story of four very different women who live on the same estate. Obviously taking place shortly after communist rule, Tomasz Wasilewski‘s latest examines these four tortured soles, each of whom are suffering emotional pain. There is Agata (Julia Kijowska), mother of one, who although married, pines for the local vicar, secretly following him and lusting after him. Then there’s Iza (Magdalena Cielecka), a head teacher who has been having a six-year-long affair with a married doctor. Then there’s Russian-teacher Renata (Dorota Kolak), a slightly more mature lady who definitely wants to get to know her neighbour, and young sports and dance teacher Marzena (Marta Nieradkiewicz), a little bit better. Marzena herself dreams of an international career as a model, and is looking forward to the arrival of a big photographer from Warsaw to help her with her portfolio.
The film is structured in such a way that the narrative plays out for each character individually, with time and events occasionally overlapping. It’s then tied together with the joint story of Renata and Marzena in the final third, a rather shocking conclusion to a rather depressing two hours.
While it is all rather bleak – the filmmakers have opted for a very desaturated look to the film too, which adds to the effect – that’s not to say that it’s not involving, engrossing and wonderfully put together. Its all of those things, with writer and director Wasilewski drawing from personal experience in terms of the setting and time, and adding a cleverly constructed trio of stories that intertwine superbly. He draws wonderful performances from his fine lead actresses, all of whom play characters that are suffering both from personal situations, comprising of everything from longing, want, desire and sacrifice, and the hangover from communist regime. A couple of stand-oust are Julia Kijowska and Magdalena Cielecka, who play the characters who are featured largely in the first two thirds of the film.
Wasilewski’s film is dank, bleak, unflinching and extremely explicit, both in its sexual content, and the intimacy it reveals in the lives of these four troubled women. Some will flinch at its raw nature, though this is an extremely strong female-driven character piece from Poland that immerses throughout.
United States Of Love review by Paul Heath, Berlin Film Festival, 2016.
