Oh, Zuzanna!!!

Rating: Null/10 (20 April 2019)

In the tradition of "Dr. Zhivago," "Zimna wojna" is a highly-charged political film framed in the context of an epic love story. The two films also share a resemblance in the stunning cinematography. Instead of the spectacular color photography of David Lean, "Zimna wojna" is filmed in a lush black-and-white style by Pawel Pawlikowski.
The incomparable uses of music and dance help to drive the action of the film. A group of Polish peasants is assembled in Warsaw as the Cold War is heating up in 1949. But a pretender enters the company, who is not a peasant at all. This is the dynamic and talented Zuzanna "Zula" Lichon, who had apparently made an attempt on the life of her abusive father, then ran away to audition for the folk singers. She fatefully meets the conductor, Wiktor Warski, and the stormy relationship that cover the entire sweep of Eastern and Western Europe unfolds.
The film is not entirely successful in depicting the political ramifications of its title. We do not really see the human rights abuses and the political repression of the Eastern Bloc nations. And, the Western European nations are portrayed superficially as sleazy and decadent. The lines of dialogue are occasionally overwrought with loaded political implications, when Zula tells Wiktor in Paris, "In Poland, you were a man; you are different here" or when Zula is lectured by Wiktor's love on the meaning of a "metaphor."
The moves from Poland to East Germany to Paris to Zagreb and back to Warsaw, spanning the years 1949-64. Some of the locations were stunning, especially a hollowed out Eastern Orthodox church that figures prominently in the action.
The film is worth seeing for the mesmerizing performance of Joanna Kulig as Zula. Like Julie Christie as Lara in "Doctor Zhivago," Kulig delivers a knock-out performance, especially in her singing. The turbulent love relationship of Zula and Wiktor mirrors the Cold War battles that nearly destroyed the world. In the case of "Zimna wojna," two souls were drawn together and were nearly destroyed, not so much by the world around them, as by their human frailty.