Wherever You Are

Polish filmmaker Krzysztof Zanussi’s English film Wherever You Are (1989) is an intense, sensitive work set in Poland in 1938. The country is on the brink of war. Nina and Julian, recently married, arrive to take up a new posting: he is there ostensibly as the Honorary Consul of Uruguay, but actually to protect German business interests. She accompanies him on what should be their honeymoon. But these are brutal and disturbing times, and as the social and political atmosphere grows increasingly threatening, no one can remain unaffected. Through Nina, the central character, the film explores the effect of violence—public, political and personal—on relationships and the human psyche; a subject of tremendous relevance to our own increasingly violent age.