Balagov creates a meticulously controlled but spontaneous landscape in Beanpole, where we often hear more than we see.

| May 15, 2024

Beanpole masters the unseen, the unspoken and the “presence of absence” in the way it unpacks the toll of ongoing armed conflict through a kind of metonymic expression of experience.

| Jul 28, 2023

Is the world ready to be slapped face-first by Beanpole? Let’s hope so.

| Jun 5, 2023

Oh God. How horrid. How unfair. How intense. How glorious.

| Sep 13, 2021

Its images, of solid aesthetic invoice, not only speak about the psychological wounds of the war in two women, but also about buried socio-political criticisms of Russia. [Full review in Spanish]

| Original Score: 7/10 | Aug 2, 2021

There is a technical sophistication to Beanpole that's hard not to admire. Balagov's plotting is particularly shrewd.

| Jul 13, 2021

It's a remarkable achievement by a young director, who manages to conjure an ending so beautiful that it makes the misery bearable.

| Jun 4, 2021

Vasilisa Perelygina and Viktoria Miroshnichenko deliver stellar performances along with Timofey Glazkov (who delivers one of the best child performances of the year) and the film is beautifully captured by Kseniya Sereda.

| Original Score: 9/10 | May 5, 2021

This impeccably performed drama explores the impact of war from a fresh perspective.

| Original Score: 9.3/10 | Mar 13, 2021

A pretty potent and convincing depiction of how a society, broken into pieces by the war... tries to take stock of what's left.

| Original Score: 3.5/5 | Mar 8, 2021

The intense relationship between Masha and Iya, without being overtly sexual, is explored in some depth. However, I would not recommend this film to someone who is depressed, particularly in these grim days.

| Original Score: B | Feb 4, 2021

If Come and See was a scream engulfed by rage, Beanpole is the sort of mournful wail that never escapes your lips.

| Jan 28, 2021

Dramas don't come much bleaker than Beanpole, director Kantemir Balagov's wrenching story about the damage caused by war, and the exceedingly high cost of survival.

| Jan 27, 2021

Beanpole is an unsparing portrait of the tenderness and cruelty born out of war.

| Jan 26, 2021

For all its tragedy, Beanpole is a beautiful film, with carefully composed frames and muted cinematography by Kseniya Sereda.

| Original Score: 7/10 | Dec 18, 2020

They're caught in a reactionary series of events that pushes them to go against every fiber of their beings if it means not becoming trapped in a corner alone.

| Original Score: 8/10 | Dec 16, 2020

The friendship between two women is used to punctuate the horror of war.

| Original Score: B+ | Nov 27, 2020

The leads are superb, and Balagov exhibits a masterful touch beyond his years.

| Original Score: 3.5/4 | Nov 25, 2020

[Director/co-writer] Kantemir Balagov has created a story that may be about what happens after the war but there is no grit, grim or absolute misery which sometimes dominates this genre but there is pain, love, and delicate bond that hopefully will last.

| Original Score: 3.5/5 | Sep 12, 2020

Balagov's beautifully acted second feature...

| Aug 14, 2020