Poland, 1990. The winds of change are blowing in Poland. The first euphoric year of freedom, but also of uncertainty for the future. Four apparently happy women of different ages decide it’s time to change their lives, fight for their happiness and fulfil their desires.
Agata is a young mother, trapped in an unhappy marriage, who seeks refuge in another, impossible relationship. Renata is an older teacher fascinated with her neighbour Marzena – a lonely former local beauty queen whose husband works in Germany. Marzena’s sister Iza is a headmistress in love with the father of one of her students.
Tomasz Wasilewski's film is a Polish-Swedish co-production realised by an international crew. Behind the camera stood Oleg Mutu, the Romanian cinematographer responsible for movies such as Cristian Mungiu’s 4 Months, 3 Weeks and 2 Days (awarded the Palme d’Or in 2007) and Sergei Loznitsa’s In the Fog.
Wasilewski's film was warmly received by the critics. Stephen Dalton, film critic for The Hollywood Reporter wrote:
United States of Love is plainly the confident work of a fast-maturing young film-maker with a strong voice and a sharp visual sense.
Urszula Lipińska wrote about the film for Stopklatka.pl:
By presenting in the United States of Love four extremely lonely women who are trapped by the unrequited love and suppress their feelings under chalk-white faces, Tomasz Wasilewski manages in a way to summarise more than two decades of our Polish freedom.
The movie stars Julia Kijowska, Magdalena Cielecka, Dorota Kolak, Marta Nieradkiewicz, Tomasz Tyndyk, Andrzej Chyra, and Łukasz Simlat. It was the female roles that caught the attention of reviewers of the movie. Jay Weissberg of Variety wrote:
All four actresses deliver strong performances: Kijowska and Cielecka have a controlled, brittle intensity, while Kolak’s projection of loneliness is even more overwhelming, as if unsorted emotions have suddenly risen to the surface and Renata doesn’t know how to decipher them. Marzena may be the most pathetic figure of all, perhaps because her youth, beauty and energy offered so much promise: Nieradkiewicz holds the character together to the truly bitter end.
United States of Love isn't the first Polish film awarded at the Berlinale recently. Last year, the Silver Bear for Best Director was awarded to Małgorzata Szumowska, director of Body.
The Golden Bear for Best Film at the 2016 Berlinale was awarded to Fire at Sea by Gianfranco Rosi.
Sources: Berlinale, Stopklatka, Variety and The Hollywood Reporter, edited by BS, translated by OK, 22 Feb 2016