Zelary
| Movie | |
|---|---|
| Original title | Zelary / Želary |
| Country of production |
Czech Republic Slovakia Austria |
| original language |
Czech Russian German |
| Publishing year | 2003 |
| length | 150 minutes |
| Rod | |
| Director | Ondřej Trojan |
| script | Petr Jarchovský |
| production | Ondřej Trojan Helena Uldrichová |
| music | Petr Ostrouchov |
| camera | Asen Šopov |
| cut | Vladimír Barák |
| occupation | |
| |
Zelary is a film drama by Ondřej Trojan from 2003. It was made in a Czech-Slovak-Austrian co-production.
action
Czechoslovakia, May 1943: Medical student Eliška and surgeon Richard are a couple. One day, woodworker Joza Janda, who was injured in a sawmill , is hospitalized. Richard operates on him and Eliška takes care of him afterwards. Eliška and Richard are active in the resistance against the German occupiers, with Eliška regularly delivering secret messages. A handover goes wrong and she just escapes the Germans. Shortly afterwards she learns that two comrades have been arrested by the Gestapo. Richard, on the other hand, fled, but left behind papers that gave Eliška a new identity under the name "Hana". Richard's confidante Slávek helps her escape with Joza Janda. She was given her first home in a village. It is viewed with suspicion: Nobody knows its past, but everyone knows that enemies of the occupiers and their helpers will be punished with death.
She learns that Slávek was killed. She is advised to marry Joza Janda, as this is the only way to dispel doubts and will be accepted into the village community. Eliška agrees, and her identity is covered by the village priest, among others. The couple moves to the remote mountain village of Želary, where Joza owns a hut. Eliška is only slowly getting used to the simple life without electricity and living with Joza, who never presses her and in which she trusts over time, which ultimately results in real love. Eliška also gets to know the other villagers - Žeňa, who lives alone with her little daughter Helenka; the boy Lipka, who has been cast out by his stepfather, the drinker Michal, and lives homeless far away from his mother Anna; the old midwife Lucka and old Gorčík, who lives with his sister-in-law Marie, who has left her brutal husband Roman.
Fear returned to Eliška's life in autumn 1943 when a family of Germans in their area was killed for hiding partisans. Michal also tries to rape her in the sawmill. Joza breaks his arm for it, which only makes him sink even more into the alcohol. One day Lipka rushes to Eliška and Lucka because his pregnant mother has fallen, but Michal and his parents are indifferent and do not want to get help. Eliška and Lucka are too late: Anna suffered a miscarriage in the fall and dies shortly afterwards. Marie is also pregnant, but gives birth to her child without returning to her husband Roman. He swears vengeance, but is driven away by his father. The threat from the Germans keeps returning to the village, so one day a man who supported "enemies of the Reich" is shot in front of the entire parish.
Spring 1945: Russian soldiers appear in the village and are welcomed as liberators. After an evening drinking binge, the mood changes the next morning. Roman brings a soldier to Marie to have her raped in revenge. Her father-in-law first shoots Roman and then the soldier, but is then shot himself by soldiers. Thanks to Lipka's help, Marie and her baby manage to escape to his hiding place behind the moor where he has lived all these months. The Russians became suspicious of the soldier's death and marauded through the village, suspecting a Nazi behind every resident. Numerous villagers die or are injured, the priest is killed. Žeňa is raped by a soldier who in turn is killed by a villager. Men, women and children of the village flee to Lipka's hiding place. Joza and his dog go looking for missing villagers several times, while Eliška helps with the care of the injured. While searching for the young Vojta, Joza is shot by the latter because he thinks he is a soldier. Joza manages to get Vojta to the hiding place. Shortly thereafter, he died almost unnoticed from his injuries.
The next morning the Russians are convinced that there are no Nazis in the village and the residents can come out of their hiding place. Joza's body is discovered and Eliška weeps honestly for him. Years later she returns to the village with Richard. Her hut is only a ruin, but she meets old Lucka again and they both fall into each other's arms, laughing.
production
Zelary is based on the novella The Man from Želary (O .: Jozova Hanule ) by Květa Legátová , which is based on real events. The film was shot mainly in the Little Fatra in Slovakia, including in the village of Zázrivá . The shooting time took over a year. Katarina Bielikova created the costumes and Milan Býcek designed the film .
The film was one of the eleven European co-productions that were funded by the Eurimages Film Fund of the Council of Europe in 2002 . The decisive factor was the “artistic quality”. In addition to the Czech Republic and Slovenia, the Austrian DOR Film Wien also co-produced the film. The ORF was also involved in financing the film.
The film opened on September 4, 2003 in Czech, February 5, 2004 in Slovak and on April 30, 2004 in Austrian cinemas. In Germany it was first seen on November 6, 2004 at the Cottbus Film Festival . The ORF showed the film on November 4, 2006 on Austrian television; The film first ran on German television on May 27, 2007 on 3sat .
criticism
"The very quiet and slowly developed film encourages close observation and captivates with the intense play of the two convincing main actors," wrote the film service . "The film impresses with excellent actors, wonderful pictures, inviting landscapes and a moving story that was staged coherently by Ondrej Trojan [...]", according to the ORF in a press release.
For Die Furche , Zelary was “a fitting portrait of a village community with a unique protagonist, for whom Trojan unfortunately takes a little too much time.” Cinema also stated that “there are [lengths] in this unlikely but true story. But thanks to good actors and finely composed pictures, an authentic, oppressive portrait of the time and place is created ”.
Awards
In October 2003 Zelary was announced by the Czech Film and Television Academy as the Czech Republic's nominee for an Oscar in the category Best Foreign Language Film and at the end of January 2004 it was nominated as one of five films for an Oscar.
Anna Geislerová won an Undine Award for Best Young Actress in the new EU countries in 2004 . In addition, she was honored with a Český lev for Best Actress. The film received another Český lev for Best Sound. The film was nominated for a Český lev in nine other categories, including main categories such as Best Film, Best Director and Best Screenplay.
Web links
- Zelary in the Internet Movie Database (English)
Individual evidence
- ↑ A lot of time for feelings and pictures . In: APA News , April 28, 2004.
- ↑ Eurimages supports Barbara Albert's film "Böse cells" . In: APA W&B , April 26, 2002.
- ↑ a b On the way to the Oscar . In: GOK , October 2, 2003.
- ↑ Zelary. In: Lexicon of International Films . Film service , accessed March 2, 2017 .
- ^ Escape into the nameless . In: Die Furche , No. 18, April 29, 2004, p. 18.
- ↑ Zelary on cinema.de
- ↑ Czech Republic sends co-production with Austria into the Oscar race . In: APA W&B , October 2, 2003.