So this is a Polish movie (from 2018, available on Amazon Prime) that starts in Poland in 1949, with two music ethnographers collecting folk tunes from the countryside… but also, it turns out, putting together a musical troupe of singers and dancers to perform those folk songs. And one of them ends up falling in love with one of the singers and they have an affair, and that’s going to be the relationship that drives the movie.

Because what the movie then does is trace those two across the next twenty years or so, jumping forward years at a time as they have what turns out to be a very episodic and tempestuous relationship: He wants to defect, but she won’t go with him; later she catches up with him in Paris, but then can’t stand his life there and goes back; he goes back to Poland to be with her, and is thrown into a labor camp for his previous defection; etc.

It’s a tragedy, obviously, and moreso because the tragedy isn’t just caused by the political landscape, but is intrinsic to the relationship: They’re obsessed with each other, and unhappy when they’re apart… but they’re also unhappy when they’re together, and their relationship is always strongest when they’re separated. (Apparently the director got his inspiration from his parents’ unhappy marriage.)

A movie about would-be lovers stopped by Cold War borders could be mawkish; a movie just about a couple that can’t quite stand each other could be frustrating. But putting the two together ends up working — the film’s relatively short (like ninety minute) running time isn’t spent on big fights or maudlin weepiness; a lot of that happens between scenes, and is left to implication. It’s instead giving little spot pictures of their relationships, and tracing out these different times and places.

And their music! Because the movie has a lot of singing in it, and the singing kinda goes with the time. At first, there is that Polish folk singing; then they get coerced into singing Soviet propaganda songs. In Paris, there’s the rise of cool jazz. The last song we hear is a Latin salsa performance in Poland in the 60s, which seemed weird to me, but apparently that was a real musical trend in the Communist world after Cuba joined the revolution, so go figure.

Also, like Roma, this is in black and white, and (also like Roma) it’s absolutely gorgeous. Given how stunning modern black and white is, it’s surprising that more movies aren’t filmed in it.

Recommended if you don’t mind movies where the characters make bad life choices.