Hands down this is one of the top ten best movies I have ever seen. It succeeds on every level, with excellent cinematography, scenery, story, acting and even music. The acting is especially superb, with the characters and their interactions always seeming real and unforced. Even the child actors are utterly convincing, and the little girl in particular brings a sense of wide-eyed innocence and charm to her role.
****POSSIBLE SPOILERS FOLLOW******
The story is about a young medical student named Eliska, who is a member of the Czech resistance during WWII. When the Gestapo captures one of her comrades, she is forced to abandon her old life and flee to the mountains with Joza, a man whose life she saved by giving him a blood transfusion. As part of her new identity, she must enter into a sham marriage with Joza, in order to be accepted by her new, highly religious community and to avoid being arrested or sent to Germany as a laborer. The story revolves around her adaptation to life in this beautiful mountain village where people live much as they did 150 years ago, and her growing attachment and commitment to Joza and the people around her.
The romance between Eliska and Joza proceeds in a believable, if inevitable, way, making an improbable pairing seem perfectly natural. Nevertheless there is nothing Hollywood about this romance or this movie, and that is a great strength. It aims for realism in depicting not only the bucolic beauty of village life, but also its dark underbelly, with some of the nastier villagers raping, assaulting and informing on others, while everyone drinks heavily.
For anyone who has ever suffered major life changes after a sudden reversal of fortune or a tragedy, and has had to pick up the pieces and start again, you will likely identify with Eliska and find the whole premise of the movie to be convincing; it just feels right, somehow.
I have seen this movie three times, and it gets better with every viewing, even knowing what is going to happen. It is a pity that Hollywood just can't seem to produce a movie that has this kind of depth and emotional resonance.
****POSSIBLE SPOILERS FOLLOW******
The story is about a young medical student named Eliska, who is a member of the Czech resistance during WWII. When the Gestapo captures one of her comrades, she is forced to abandon her old life and flee to the mountains with Joza, a man whose life she saved by giving him a blood transfusion. As part of her new identity, she must enter into a sham marriage with Joza, in order to be accepted by her new, highly religious community and to avoid being arrested or sent to Germany as a laborer. The story revolves around her adaptation to life in this beautiful mountain village where people live much as they did 150 years ago, and her growing attachment and commitment to Joza and the people around her.
The romance between Eliska and Joza proceeds in a believable, if inevitable, way, making an improbable pairing seem perfectly natural. Nevertheless there is nothing Hollywood about this romance or this movie, and that is a great strength. It aims for realism in depicting not only the bucolic beauty of village life, but also its dark underbelly, with some of the nastier villagers raping, assaulting and informing on others, while everyone drinks heavily.
For anyone who has ever suffered major life changes after a sudden reversal of fortune or a tragedy, and has had to pick up the pieces and start again, you will likely identify with Eliska and find the whole premise of the movie to be convincing; it just feels right, somehow.
I have seen this movie three times, and it gets better with every viewing, even knowing what is going to happen. It is a pity that Hollywood just can't seem to produce a movie that has this kind of depth and emotional resonance.