Beanpole, the Russian post-WWII drama from director Kantemir Balagov is one step closer to winning an Oscar, as the film made the Oscar shortlist for Best International Feature Film. Beanpole opens in theaters in NYC at Film Forum on January 29 and in Los Angeles at Landmark Nuart on February 14.

In post-WWII Leningrad, two women, Iya and Masha (astonishing newcomers Viktoria Miroshnichenko and Vasilisa Perelygina), intensely bonded after fighting side by side as anti-aircraft gunners, attempt to readjust to a haunted world. As the film begins, Iya, long and slender and towering over everyone-hence the film’s title-works as a nurse in a shell-shocked hospital, presiding over traumatized soldiers. A shocking accident brings them closer and also seals their fates.

The 28-year-old Russian director Kantemir Balagov won Un Certain Regard’s Best Director prize at this year’s Cannes Film Festival for this richly burnished, occasionally harrowing rendering of the persistent scars of war.