Press releases

MINSK, 15 October (BelTA) – Listapad’s opening film will be the drama Cold War by Pawel Pawlikowski, BelTA learned from the organizers’ of the festival.

The previous work by the director is Oscar-Winning Ida which was awarded Sold and Silver at Listapad in 2013. “It is a symbolic gesture for us to open the 25th installment of Listapad with the Cold War. Our festival was among the first to celebrate Ida, now the classics of the new Polish cinematography which propelled Pawel Pawlikowski to the ranks of the world’s leading directors. Moreover, the Cold War topic is connected with the communist context and the confrontation between the East and West systems. Listapad turns to cinematographies which have roots in this past. This is why it is important for us to contribute to the triumph of the film. However, the movie is not about politics but about a love story that knows no boundaries and taboos, about hard-to-gain happiness and paradoxes of human nature. It is an atmospheric film, in the style of lyrical masterpieces of independent cinematography during the period of its heyday,” said Listapad’s program director Igor Sukmanov.

Cold War narrates about impossible love during the impossible time. Wiktor and Zula, who share names and character traits with the film-maker’s mother and father, meet on the ruins of postwar Poland. Due to different backgrounds and temperaments, they seem to be completely incompatible, but through decades they would fall together and apart in Warsaw, Berlin, Yugoslavia, Paris, over politics, ups and downs of life, and their own drawbacks.

The opening ceremony of the 25th Minsk International Film Festival Listapad will take place in the Moskva cinema house on 2 November.

The founders of the Minsk International Film Festival Listapad are the Culture Ministry of the Republic of Belarus and the Minsk City Hall.