During
the wartime occupation of Czechoslovakia by the Nazis, many
tragic and many subtle happenings kept the population on edge.
Divided We Fall, directed by Jan Hrebejk, peaks
into the window of ambiguity and inhumanity and emerges with
considerable healing for the country, quite a feat indeed.
Based on the novel Musíme si pomáhat by Pëtr Jarchovsky, the
story revolves around David Weiner (played by Csongor Kassai),
a Jewish resident, who was deported along with other Jews
to concentration camps in 1941. In 1943, David managed, however,
to bribe some of his captors in order to return to his ancestral
home for some treasures that might serve to provide better
treatment for his family. When he arrives back in town, he
discovers that his home is reassigned, and a local resident
cries out to police that a Jew is loose, so he ends up knocking
on the door of Josef and Marie Cizek (played by Boleslav Polívka
and Anna Sisková), begging to stay just for a night. The Cizeks,
who were once employed by Weiner’s family business, take him
in but cannot release him to return to the camp for fear that
Nazi authorities will trace his whereabouts to their door.
Accordingly, Weiner hides out in the pantry, becoming the
Czech equivalent of Anne Frank minus a diary. Horst Prohaska
(played by Jaroslav Dusek), a Czech who works for the Nazi
occupiers, makes frequent visits to the Cizek residence to
provide various necessities in exchange for meals and an opportunity
to be with Marie. Since the couple has no children, Prohaska
assumes that Marie is sexually frustrated; repeated visits
and even a clumsy attempt to force sex fail to capture Marie’s
heart, who is devoted to her husband despite his impotence
and injured leg. Although Prohaska becomes aware of Weiner’s
presence, he does not turn in the Cizeks, believing in the
principle "United we stand, divided we fall." Several predicaments
of the town’s residents, typical of the wartime domestic chaos,
are identified in the film. We see how ordinary Czechs shunned
Nazi collaborators, even frightening Prohaska’s German wife
to move to Germany so that she will not suffer when the Nazis
retreat from Czechoslovakia. Albrecht Kepke, a Czech collaborator
(played by Martin Huba), lives well until his teenage son
goes off to fight for the Nazis but deserts the army, whereupon
he is removed from his post, becomes homeless, is humiliated
publicly, and begs to be reassigned to live with the Cizeks.
When Marie fibs that she is pregnant, so the extra room will
be reserved for a new baby, Kepke is assigned to other living
quarters. But Josef then begs Marie to have Weiner impregnate
her so that she will indeed carry a child. At the critical
moment when Marie is in labor, the Nazis have been defeated.
The German medical doctor in town is rounded up. As suspected
collaborators, Prohaska and Josef are also arrested by a troika
of the Czech underground, the Soviet army, and the new Czech
civilian authorities. Josef then claims that he has harbored
a Jew, and thus that he was not a true Nazi collaborator,
and that Prohaska is a physician who is needed to handle the
birth of the child, once again following the "United we stand,
divided we fall" principle. The tension in the film about
Nazi ruthlessness is mitigated by lively music, comedy relief,
and the joy of seeing the Nazis tasting defeat. The comedy
is situational, and the serious message comes through loud
and clear. Accordingly, the Political Film Society has nominated
Divided We Fall as best film of 2001 on peace,
showing how closing ranks in the face of adversity is a far
superior strategy to turning in friends and neighbors to gain
points with heartless oppressors. MH
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