A nuanced character drama set during the Nazi occupation of Czechoslovakia,
Divided We Fall is mis-advertised as a Holocaust drama, when in fact it's an
inquiry into loyalties - personal, familial, and national.
Written and directed by Jan Hrebejk, the film explores the relationship between genial, unassuming Jozef (Bolek Polívka), his lovely wife Marie (Anna Sisková), and former colleague turned enthusiastic Nazi collaborator Horst (Jaroslav
Dusek), a German-speaking Sudetenlander. The three live in comfortable
middle-class surroundings, and in a series of perhaps overly confusing quick
cuts from 1937 to '39 to '41 to '43, we see how Jozef and Horst work together for a prosperous Jewish family, the Wieners. These scenes fly by so quickly that it's hard to make sense of their significance, and my girlfriend had to point out one crucial relationship afterward. By the time we reach 1943, the Nazis are in full control of Prague, and Jozef and Marie chafe silently under German rule, while forcing themselves to host Horst during his frequent unannounced visits. This tableau is overturned when the solitary survivor of the Wieners'
deportation sneaks back to his hometown, threatening Jozef and Marie's safety and imperiling them with reprisals for harboring a fugitive Jew.
While the film starts slowly, and perhaps too muddled in the first crucial
scenes, the dramatic intensity picks up during the second hour, with the struggle of Jozef and Marie to protect themselves while behaving decently, with
sometimes horrible personal choices to make. The most fascinating character is Horst, who has suffered his entire life being ridiculed as a German-speaker in Czechoslovakia, and revels in Nazi superiority at last while still proclaiming himself a loyal Czech citizen acting with his country's interests at heart. I found the ending overly sweet, under the circumstances, but it does wrap up all the endings and demonstrates how a simple division of good and evil-doers in a complicated war may not be possible.
Divided We Fall is mis-advertised as a Holocaust drama, when in fact it's an
inquiry into loyalties - personal, familial, and national.
Written and directed by Jan Hrebejk, the film explores the relationship between genial, unassuming Jozef (Bolek Polívka), his lovely wife Marie (Anna Sisková), and former colleague turned enthusiastic Nazi collaborator Horst (Jaroslav
Dusek), a German-speaking Sudetenlander. The three live in comfortable
middle-class surroundings, and in a series of perhaps overly confusing quick
cuts from 1937 to '39 to '41 to '43, we see how Jozef and Horst work together for a prosperous Jewish family, the Wieners. These scenes fly by so quickly that it's hard to make sense of their significance, and my girlfriend had to point out one crucial relationship afterward. By the time we reach 1943, the Nazis are in full control of Prague, and Jozef and Marie chafe silently under German rule, while forcing themselves to host Horst during his frequent unannounced visits. This tableau is overturned when the solitary survivor of the Wieners'
deportation sneaks back to his hometown, threatening Jozef and Marie's safety and imperiling them with reprisals for harboring a fugitive Jew.
While the film starts slowly, and perhaps too muddled in the first crucial
scenes, the dramatic intensity picks up during the second hour, with the struggle of Jozef and Marie to protect themselves while behaving decently, with
sometimes horrible personal choices to make. The most fascinating character is Horst, who has suffered his entire life being ridiculed as a German-speaker in Czechoslovakia, and revels in Nazi superiority at last while still proclaiming himself a loyal Czech citizen acting with his country's interests at heart. I found the ending overly sweet, under the circumstances, but it does wrap up all the endings and demonstrates how a simple division of good and evil-doers in a complicated war may not be possible.