J. J. Wright’s review published on Letterboxd:
Still not sure what to make of this bleak, beautiful little film. It's masterfully shot and Pawlikowski controls everything extremely well, making for an effective and economical (under 90 mins) experience. In that time we cover ~20 years of personal and national history, and the film uses its time to tell both stories (the tragic romance between the two leads and the crisis in Poland's national soul) without belaboring anything. The music is great at reflecting both stories, too, especially as we see some songs reprised, changing with the times and characters. Kulig's performance is incredible, and she's filmed and framed in such a way that your eye is always drawn to her whenever she's on screen.
My problem is that, for me, the initial passion between her Zula and Tomasz Kot's Wiktor never felt hot enough to sustain the epic scope of their affair... I guess that lack of feeling at the start trickled down as we went along and combined with all the copious evidence of the characters' incompatibility to make their relationship untenable for me. I still cared for them and invested in their story, so it worked that much for me, but the rest I felt was left a little "as-read," to the film's detriment.