Film Review: Divided We Fall (Musíme si pomáhat, 2000)

Czech cinema stands out among its European peers for having its traditional reputation built around comedies. Most of those films feature what is often described as specifically brand Czech humour, which is part of the larger tradition developed by Czechs throughout their country’s troubled history as a way to deal with foreign rule and ideological repression. Because of such traditions, Czech film makers were able to get away with making comedies set in time periods and dealing with subjects that would be taboo to their colleagues in other parts of the world, like, for example, Roberto Benigni and his slightly controversial film Life Is Beautiful. That film shares similar subject and, to a certain degree, similar approach to Musime si pomáhat (literally “We Must Help Each Other”), 2000 Czech period comedy directed by Jan Hřebejk, distributed internationally under English title Divided We Fall.

The plot is set in one Czech town in 1939, in a time when, following partition of Czechoslovakia, Czechia came under the rule of Nazi Germany as “Bohemian-Moravian Protectorate”. Protagonists are Josef Čižek (played by Bolek Polívka) and his attractive wife Marie (played by Anna Šišková) who watch Wieners, their Jewish neighbours, being rounded up and taken to some sort of “camp” in Theresienstadt. Few years later Wieners’ son David (played by Csongor Kassai) has escaped from the camp and returned to his home town trying to get his family’s hidden gold. With nobody else willing to help, he accidentally stumbles on Čižeks who decide to hide him in their house. This proves to be extremely dangerous, because of Horst Prohaska (played by Jaroslav Dušek), Wieners’ former driver who, as ethnic German, became something of a local bigwig under the new order. Prohaska used to be friends with Čižeks and use every opportunity to shower them with food, gifts and job offers for Josef. The reason isn’t altruistic – he covets Marie and Josef being at work would give me opportunity to have his way with her. Čižeks must adapt to new situation, especially after Second World War stops going in Germany’s favour. As frontline begins to approach from the east, Czechs know that Nazi regime would soon end and many prepare for settle scores. Targets are not only Germans, but local collaborators, with Čižeks being perceived as such.

Jan Hřebejk was relatively young director at the time, but he had already made series of films very popular in his country. Divided We Fall was, however, first among them to create attention internationally. Part of the reason was that he had taken inspiration of his older and much better known colleague, whose Oscar-awarded black comedy Closely Watched Trains shares the setting with this film. Hřebejk, together with old friend and collaborator Petr Jarchovský, has filled the script with series of interesting characters, absurd situations and comical twists. Divided We Fall also features excellent cast. Bolek Polívka is a very good in the role of protagonist who is supposed to be hero, but is in actuality very lazy and hen-pecked by his wife. Jaroslav Dušek is even better by playing the character who is supposed to be the most reprehensible of them all, but still manages to evoke some sympathy from the audience.

One of the most interesting yet less appreciated aspects of Divided We Fall is that its script bravely tackles the seldom addressed fact that the actual end of Second World War didn’t mean the end of human suffering and persecutions in many parts of Europe. The last scenes, set during the liberation of Czechoslovakia, show the start of ethnic cleansing of Germans, event that was happening all over Eastern Europe at the time and, together with Holocaust that had removed Jews, reshaped previously diverse continent into set of ethnicity monolithic states. Hřebejk contrasts those scenes with the brief prologue, set in 1937, during which Josef, Horst and David, each representing different ethnicity, get along, seemingly oblivious to the upcoming catastrophe that would set them apart. Hřebejk near the end declares himself as humanist, showing that everyone has suffered in those times and that his country, as well as the rest of the world, can overcome this trauma only with forgiveness and reconciliation. This message, which is often ignored in our increasingly violent and tribalistic world, is somewhat muddled by Hřebejk’s at times little pretentious style of directing that often goes to shots frozen mid-sequences and employ symbolism. But Divided We Fall is nevertheless surprisingly effective and, in the end, very moving film that deserves recommendation both to viewers who like to cry and those who like to laugh.

RATING: 8/10 (+++)

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