The devastating aftershocks of war have rarely been conveyed so viscerally as they are in this haunting Russian elegy. In a dank Leningrad hospital in 1945, after the war has been won but the damage — physical, psychological, emotional — is still palpable, two women who have survived the war must now learn to survive the peace. The “Beanpole” of the title is the tall, unearthly pale Iya, a nurse who suffers from seizures that freeze her in an unreachable trance. Masha, her best friend, has returned from the front to learn that her young son, who was entrusted to Iya’s care, has died. His shocking death inspires in Masha a fierce determination to bring another child into the world even though her doctors have told her this is physically impossible. Somber, harrowing and aglow with a hypnotic beauty, Beanpole won multiple awards in Cannes for its prodigiously talented 28-year-old director Kantemir Balagov (Closeness) whose visionary images possess an unshakable quality.

Winner: FIPRESCI Prize, Best Director, Un Certain Regard, Cannes

In competition for the FIPRESCI Prize

Writer/director Kantemir Balagov is expected to be in attendance on January 6 and 7.