THREE COLORS: WHITE

“To tell the truth,” said Krzysztof Kieślowski of his THREE COLORS trilogy, “I dreamed up the color theme... merely to facilitate French financing.” Joking or not, the Polish director was referring to a new hierarchy in international cinema after the fall of the Soviet Union, which decimated state funding for culture in Central and Eastern Europe. The middle film in the trilogy, WHITE, traces these new, exploitative routes of exchange between West and East with gentle humor. Forsaken by his French wife Dominique (Julie Delpy), hairdresser Karol Karol (Zbigniew Zamachowski) smuggles himself to Poland in a suitcase and attempts to prosper in post-communist Warsaw—even as the égalité evoked by the title’s color drifts out of reach. Zbigniew Preisner’s moving score is similarly pitched between the potentialities and harsh realities of a newly connected continent. Awards & Nominations…