Bitter Love

JERZY SLADKOWSKI | POLAND | 2020 | 86'

On a Russian cruise ship – the Maxim Gorky, a floating microcosm, a large and varied gallery of passengers is drifting down the Volga.

Everyone on board is yearning for something in their lives: happiness, love, companionship – and the lucky ones find what they are looking for. Most of them have their best years behind them, and they know it.

But even the young aren’t necessarily good at figuring out the workings of love and each other. Life is long, happiness is fickle, but the tragicomic tone is above all witty and heart-warming, and without revealing too much, there is a prospect of a happy ending even before the journey is over. With Bitter Love, the Polish director Jerzy Sladkowski has made “a fun, charming and insightful film, which is guaranteed to conquer a heart or two”.

"Bitter Love is a hopeful ode to the power of human contact."

The Calvert Journal

Credits

Director: Jerzy Sladkowski
Producer: Antonia Russo Merenda
Language: English subtitles