Beanpole

Intense drama awaits brave viewers in Beanpole, Russia’s Best International Feature submission for the recent Academy Awards, which wouldn’t have come close to stealing the prize from Parasite but would have been a better choice than at least two of the nominees.

Set in the rubble of 1945 Leningrad, this remarkably mature and accomplished film from 28-year-old director/co-writer Kantemir Balagov centers on extraordinarily tall nurse Iya (Viktoria Miroshnichenko) — she of the titular nickname — who suffers from temporary paralysis, often while standing, as a result of her time fighting in World War II.

In the wake of a shocking incident involving her son Pashka (Timofey Glazkov), Iya’s wartime friend Masha (Vasilisa Perelygina) unexpectedly returns and convinces her to have another child — a complicated request considering Iya’s medical condition and other postwar hardships.

The perilous path that follows yields plentiful opportunities for Miroshnichenko and Perelygina to showcase their chemistry, including a pair of harrowing scenes featuring a level of emotional intensity rarely seen in modern cinema — especially considering the simplicity with which each moment is enacted.

Masha’s romance with awkward but kind suitor Sasha (Igor Shirokov), however, is far less interesting, and while tensions surrounding Iya’s pregnancy grow excruciatingly repetitive, Beanpole finds new energy through a final-act encounter that damns the lingering inequality within a Communist society that’s doing wrong by most of its citizens.

Now playing at Grail Moviehouse