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DIVIDED
WE FALL IS NOMINATED FOR BEST FILM ON PEACE
 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."
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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
MUSIC
FILLS TWO SUMMER SCREENS
If
you enjoy the music of Gustav Mahler, Bride
of the Wind is a rare treat. In Songcatcher,
a fictional musicology professor from Columbia University
goes to the Blue Ridge Mountains and discovers pure versions
of sixteenth century songs from the British Isles, subsequently
known as hillbilly music.
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