Deníky Bohemia
Exceptionally Gentle Cruelty
Želary is a return to poetic historical films in Czech film. Director and producer Ondřej Trojan used his rich experience in domestic cinematography and was able to professionally combines all of film's facets. Želary can therefore look towards not only a rich harvest of Czech Lion awards, but maybe even an Oscar nomination.
This film's slogan, A Cruel Story of Gentle Love, is the best description of the film's plot. These are exactly the emotions that the central character experiences: the young city girl Eliška, who has to escape from the Nazis into the distant mountains on the border and faces an uncertain future, and she is not the only one. Her guide in this new life is Joza, the rugged man with the soul of a child. The traditions of his "barbaric" home dictate that they have to start a family and try to find the difficult road of tolerance and love for one another.
Screenwriter Petr Jarchovský's script is based on the books Želary and Jozova Hanule by Květa Legátová. While the first work is a set of short stories that describes the various fates of people living in this God forgotten place, the second is the romantic story of Joza and Eliška's relationship. These works had to be put together, which the director was successful in doing with a few small exceptions, such as Jaroslav Dušek's local teacher, who is too much like Jarchovský's signature tragic-comic characters.
The film goer finds the strongest moments exactly where they have always been: inside individual characters. Eliška, played completely convincingly by Anna Geislerová, is an exquisitely fleshed-out girl who must except her new role in life overnight. Her partner is Joza, who needs no large words or gestures as proof of love. Hungarian actor Gyorgy Cserhalmi was able to breathe charisma into him; combining gentleness and humbleness with almost medieval instincts.
Very sensitive direction fills in the fate of this couple, enhanced in every detail by Asen Šopov's dramatic cinematography, Vladimír Barák's editing and Petr Ostrouchov's exceptionally moving music.
This review comes from the most widely read daily in the Czech Republic, the "Deníky Bohemia."