Critics reviews

Though some of the plotlines work better than others and Wasilewski's cynicism becomes a bit overbearing, United States of Love provides a fascinating affective history of the end of Soviet bloc and insight into the ambiguities of embracing the West and its values.

Fine performances stir the frustrating sense that rather fuller iterations of these women – an Agata who's more than a sad ecclesiastical groupie, a Renata whose prior life we know a little more about – were there to be uncovered, had the mooning and masochism made way for a few more layers of characterization. Still, there's no doubt that keeping his protagonists at such a distance has created mystery, and sometimes real suspense.

The Best Screenplay Silver Bear went to Tomasz Wasilewski for his United States of Love; again, international art-house technique was lauded and a film like A Dragon Arrives! that defied all categorization was excluded.

While meaty, complex screen roles for females are still relatively hard to come by, no less than four of them are combined in the multi-stranded tale of women grasping for greater personal fulfillment in a town in 90s Poland just after the fall of communism. Wasilewski, who also wrote the screenplay, won the Silver Bear for Best Script at the festival, affirming his confident freshness of perspective and skilful interweaving of psychological revelations.