Divided We Fall
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Actor: Anna Sisková, Bolek Polívka, Csongor Kassai, Jaroslav Dusek, Martin HubaBrand: POLIVKA,BOLEK
DVD: Region Code 99
Audio: English (Unknown); English (Subtitled); Czech (Original Language), Dolby Digital 2.0 Surround
Format: Anamorphic, Closed-captioned, Color, Dolby, DTS Surround Sound, DVD, Full Screen, NTSC, Subtitled, Widescreen
Picture Format: Anamorphic Widescreen, 1.85:1
Running Time: 117 minutes
DVD Release Date: 2001-11-27
Audience Rating: PG-13 (Parental Guidance Suggested)
Studio: Sony Pictures Home Entertainment
DVD Reviews of Divided We Fall
DVD Review: A compelling nuanced story
Summary: 4 Stars
This film isn't going to be like the WWII/Shoah film the average person expects. Instead of focusing on a lot of atrocities and tragedies, almost all of the focus is all on the one couple, Josef and Maria, their Jewish friend David (whose father was Josef's old boss), and Josef and Maria's collaborator friend Horst. The first five minutes of the film give us very short vignettes from 1937, 1939, and 1941, and are pretty much useless, since we're never told who these people are and what their relationship is, apart from giving the viewer an idea of how life changed from the prewar era to after the Nazi occupation of Czechoslovakia. The real meat of the story begins in 1943, when Josef and Maria agree to take in their old friend David, who has escaped from Poland after being interned in Terezin, the sole survivor of his family (the people we saw very brief glimpses of in 1939 and 1941). He came back to the old neighborhood because it's what he knows, and figured, perhaps naďvely, that surely there would be someone who would help him. At great personal risk to themselves, his old friends agree to hide him in a closet in their apartment. This is no easy matter in wartime or under occupation, not least of all because one of Josef's best friends, Horst, is of German descent and therefore profitting greatly now that his people are the ones in power. In addition to Horst's frequent unannounced (and often unwanted) visits and attempts to bed Maria, they also must deal with Horst's boss, a German commandant whom Josef also later agrees to go to work for (prior to that he'd been sleeping through the war and not working). One never knows what is going to happen next, if they'll be turned in by Horst, who suspects or outright knows their secret, if their secret will be discovered by their Czech neighbors or the German occupiers whom Josef has to pretend to be buddy-buddy with to survive, or what anyone's fate might be after the liberation arrives. There are also many fine moments of comedy, none of it forced or overdone.
The film works because the characters are so nuanced and complex. Instead of relying on clichés and one-dimensional stereotypes, the characters are multi-faceted people, with both positive and negative attributes. Horst, the German sympathiser, may be a vulgar boor and a collaborator, but his actions demonstrate that he also possesses humanity, kindness, and loyalty. His boss Dr. Kepke might be a high-ranking Nazi, but he's also shown as a father who loves and cares about his sons, someone with normal human feelings behind the uniform. Even Josef and Maria aren't shown as complete saints just because they've agreed to hide David. They have normal human weaknesses and have the typical problems couples do, in their case particularly because they're still childless after many years of marriage in spite of Maria's fervent prayers to the Virgin Mary to grant them a child. Even the victorious liberators from the Soviet Army, the Czech Home Army, and the Czech partisans aren't depicted as completely understanding and benevolent people just because they're on the winning side. These are people who do what they had to survive, even if some of those things went against everything they had believed in before the war. And in spite of the potential for it given the storyline, the film is never emotionally manipulative or morally heavy-handed. The final scene of the film in particular is very moving. This is one foreign film and historical drama that deserves to be better-known.
Description of Divided We Fall
In German-occupied Czechoslovakia during World War II, a young couple risks their lives to provide shelter to a Jewish neighbor only to discover that he alone can give them the security they need to keep the encroaching Nazis at bay.Genre: Foreign Film - Other
Rating: PG13
Release Date: 27-NOV-2001
Media Type: DVD
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