Zelary tells a powerful story and the film has been wonderfully made - the photography in particular is outstanding, capturing the beauty and harshness of the mountain village location. The soundtrack is excellent too, as is most of the acting.
One flaw is that the first 15 mins can give a false impression of what follows - the long central part of the film is a slow and moving depiction of village life and Eliska's coming to terms with her predicament. It's really a relationship movie - this isn't obvious from the opening, which might suggest it's going to be a traditional wartime resistance suspense type of film. So when the pace of the movie slows it's easy to start wondering why nothing much is happening! (I found a second viewing much more rewarding, once I knew what the film wasn't).
** spoiler (the ending in general terms, no specific details) ahead ** Similarly the ending - when the pace quickens again; Eliska's situation achieves closure, with few unanswered questions. I believe the story is based on true events, and also that the author of the original book has good reasons for the political message about the events of 1945 and (by implication) what came after, which doubtless still appeals to the home audience. Still, it's a sad one. Well, I guess the most powerful stories aren't often the happy ones, and Hollywood churns out enough 'happily ever after' endings to keep most of us happy.
Zelary is a tremendous achievement and really deserves to have won that Oscar. The Director and some of the team worked on "Divided we Fall" - another excellent Czech WWII film, highly recommended to anyone who enjoyed Zelary (although it's a very different type of film, the production values and impact are equally high).
One flaw is that the first 15 mins can give a false impression of what follows - the long central part of the film is a slow and moving depiction of village life and Eliska's coming to terms with her predicament. It's really a relationship movie - this isn't obvious from the opening, which might suggest it's going to be a traditional wartime resistance suspense type of film. So when the pace of the movie slows it's easy to start wondering why nothing much is happening! (I found a second viewing much more rewarding, once I knew what the film wasn't).
** spoiler (the ending in general terms, no specific details) ahead ** Similarly the ending - when the pace quickens again; Eliska's situation achieves closure, with few unanswered questions. I believe the story is based on true events, and also that the author of the original book has good reasons for the political message about the events of 1945 and (by implication) what came after, which doubtless still appeals to the home audience. Still, it's a sad one. Well, I guess the most powerful stories aren't often the happy ones, and Hollywood churns out enough 'happily ever after' endings to keep most of us happy.
Zelary is a tremendous achievement and really deserves to have won that Oscar. The Director and some of the team worked on "Divided we Fall" - another excellent Czech WWII film, highly recommended to anyone who enjoyed Zelary (although it's a very different type of film, the production values and impact are equally high).