Behind the scenes: Cold War

It’s not often that a film in a foreign language slips its world cinema moorings to become a mainstream awards contender, let alone one in black-and-white.

Such is the lucky fate of Cold War, a love story from behind the Iron Curtain loosely based on the relationship of Polish director Pawel Pawlikowski’s parents.

Credit is due to Pawlikowski’s storytelling and the lush cinematography of Lukasz Zal PSC who teamed up for the first time since Ida (2013), which won the Oscar for Foreign Language Film and landed Zal his first nomination.

After premiering in Cannes, where Pawlikowski won the prestigious best director award, Cold War scooped a clutch of awards including best film at the European Film Awards, and is Academy Award nominated for Best Foreign Language picture, for direction and cinematography. The international co-pro is funded by the Polish Film Institute, the BFI, Film4, Euroimages and Canal+ Poland, among others.

Since Ida was also set in communist eastern Europe and shot in black-and-white, the filmmakers were reluctant to make the same choices again.

“Our first thought was that it be would be embarrassing to make another film in the same format,” Zal says. “We tried to mimic the Soviet era Technicolor which was all desaturated greys, reds and greens but couldn’t find the right palette. It looked too contrived.”

Instead they shot tests using Kodak 35mm stock side by side with footage from an ARRI Alexa XT. With colourist Michal Herman at Warsaw facility DI Factory, Zal devised LUTs so that the raw digital output matched that of film.

“We used the same Ultra Primes and graded the look so that you couldn’t…