Zelary (2003) - Czech Republic

Academy Award Nominee for Best Foreign Film

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0288330/

Plot & Summary

This Oscar nominated drama is a cinematic treat on all fronts, from the carefully constructed characters to the veracity of the settings and the technical achievements of filmmaking. Satisfyingly complex, the fact based story delves into the characters and their cultural environment with great subtlety and grace. Unlike many war stories of resistance fighters, Zelary is deeply committed to the intimate details of personal metamorphoses beyond the frame of their wartime activities. The film also burrows into the community, and avoids making these people some sort of utopian, morally upright checkpoint against Nazi amorality. It is these silken threads of truth that elevate Zelary to heights of creative excellence.

But so does the performances; full of nuance and intricate detail, both Anna Geislerová as Eliska / Hana, and György Cserhalmi as Joza give us beautifully realised characters. In film, it is an ironic fact that the more intricate the characterization, the more recognizable the character. These two actors convey much with looks and gestures, body language and timing. This is especially critical for the symbolic change in Eliska as she has to assume the new role of country wife Hana. This educated urban sophisticate is thrust into a remote cabin and adapt to a world as alien, and as threatening as Mars. But Joza also has to adapt, his life turned inside out by this woman, to whom he owes his life in technical terms, yet who threatens it at the same time - not only through the very real threat of the Gestapo, but even within his own community. Small communities don't take strangers in very easily. Somehow, he has to fight her at the same time as his neighbors.

The summer colors of the Czech countryside are glorious, especially in contrast to the bleak wartime air that hangs over it, and when winter comes, the snow blankets the dark hollows. Culturally explicit, Zelary is at once a showcase of man's humanity and an essay on our eternal failures. For example, the simple but powerful scene where the local priest quietly discusses the wedding ceremony with the couple, on the verge of this artificial marriage. It's a scene of enormous emotional power, shot without an ounce of sentimentality.

Rating

7.6/10 1,741 votes


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