COLD
WAR
A personal memoir by Pawel Pawlikowski dramatizing the wrenching, decade-long dynamic of his parents’ real-life on-and-off courtship, shot with meticulous attention to period detail, Cold War is not only the best foreign language film of the year, it’s modern filmmaking at its finest.
A PASSIONATE
WAR
“It's about imagining the object of your love as somebody else than who they really are and discovering who they really are and then still loving them.”
— Writer/director Pawel Pawlikowski
“It's about imagining the object of your love as somebody else than who they really are and discovering who they really are and then still loving them. ”
— Writer/director Pawel Pawlikowski
A deep look at the true story that inspired this multi-decade romance through changing times of communism to freedom in Poland. A personal memoir by Pawel Pawlikowski to dramatize the legend of his own family roots, Cold War is modern filmmaking at its finest. By reaching back to a classic cinematic milieu, this Oscar-winning auteur has reimagined today’s film experience and re-awakened our romance with cinema.
Spanning 15 years across Warsaw, Berlin, Yugoslavia and Paris, and inspired by the real-life story of the director’s own parents’ romance, Cold War meticulously re-creates the era with virtuosic black-and-white visuals and a terrific soundtrack.
PAWEL
PAWLIKOWSKI
“On the set, very often I knew what Paweł wants without talking about this. It's like intuition, it's like musicality and... We feel very well.”
— Joanna Kulig on working with writer/director Pawel Pawlikowski
“On the set, very often I knew what Paweł wants without talking about this. It's like intuition, it's like musicality and ... We feel very well.”
— Joanna Kulig on working with writer/director Pawel Pawlikowski
Oscar-winning director, Pawel Pawlikowski, has done it again. Cold War, his very personal narrative tells the captivating story of two lovers brought together by circumstance and connected for all time by true love. We look into Pawlikowski’s life, laid bare on screen in his new masterpiece, and learn what brought him to this moment in his life and career, where he comes from and why he’s truly a cinematic maestro. We discover his work with leading actress, Joanna Kulig, and how their previous successful work together in Ida laid the foundations for a cinematic partnership that created an Oscar worthy film.
Stunning performances by Joanna Kulig (Zula) and Tomasz Kot (Wiktor) propel Pawel Pawlikowski’s new epic drama, Cold War.
JOANNA
KULIG
“It was the charm, the energy, the kind of authenticity. Joanna is an actress but also she's a great character. She's got a lot of authentic energy, which is kind of like nobody else. She's quite unique.”
— Writer/director Pawel Pawlikowski on why he cast Joanna Kulig as the lead character Zula
“It was the charm, the energy, the kind of authenticity. Joanna is an actress but also she's a great character. She's got a lot of authentic energy, which is kind of like nobody else. She's quite unique.”
— Writer/director Pawel Pawlikowski on why he cast Joanna Kulig as the lead character Zula
An on-screen charisma and golden voice that reminds us of Jennifer Lawrence, Joanna Kulig’s performance in Cold War, both inspires and seduces and announces her as the next, exciting cinema discovery. In this episode we reveal the journey Kulig took from her Polish folk-music roots to her previous successful work with director Pawel Pawlikowski in order to achieve this historic performance. This role, specifically written for her by Pawlikowski, allows her to shine in all her glory as a multi-disciplined performer. And not just to lip-sync as they do in most films, produce flawless singing since some songs were recorded live on set. Along the way, we touch upon her scene work with her co-star, Tomasz Kot, and how his expert performance as Wiktor, a jazz pianist and frustrated artist, who’s truly driven by his passion for her, amplified her on-screen brilliance.
Pawel Pawlikowski follows his Oscar-winning Ida with the stunning Cold War, an epic romance set against the backdrop of Europe after World War II.
