Želary, directed by Ondrej Trojan, is the name of a village in rural Czechoslovakia where antifascist Eliška (played by Ana Geislerová) hides from the Nazis during World War II from May 1943. When the film begins, twentysomething Eliška is a nurse at a hospital who is being courted by a physician named Richard (played by Ivan Trojan). Her blood is transfused into a patient, Joza (played by György Cserhalmi), a fiftysomething sawmill worker who later accompanies her to Želary when her presence in Prague would be suicidal; her suitor has already departed. Urbane Eliška, accordingly, takes on the identity of Hana and must adjust to life in the countryside, where electricity is rare and women have to work in the fields as well as tend to hearth and home. Most of the film, indeed, deals with how well she copes with conditions that are at first so harsh for her. Among the problems that she must overcome are a marriage with Joza, whom she hardly knows, an inability to cook, a lack of indoor plumbing, and unwelcome advances from a young man in the neighborhood. Thanks to the kindness of Joza and the women of the community, she develops a deep affection for almost everyone. A medical student who could not complete her training when the Nazis shut down universities in Czechoslovakia, she performs more than mere first aid for the benefit of the community, aiding an elderly midwife (played by Jaroslava Adamova) on more than one occasion. The local authorities, the Nazis, and, surprisingly, the antifascist Partisans provide some tense moments. Adapted from the novel Jozova Hanule by Kveta Legátová, which in turn is based on a true story, Želary is best appreciated as a slow-moving yet intense story of survival despite adversity.  MH

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Želary
by Kveta Legátová