Divided We Fall

Starring:Bolek PolÃvka, Anna SiskovÃ¡, Csongor Kassai, Jaroslav Dusek, Martin Huba, JirÃ Pecha, Simona StasovÃ¡, Vladimir Marek, Richard TesarÃk, Karel HermÃ¡nek, Otto Sevcik, JirÃ Kodet, Petr Knotek, Helena NeuwirthovÃ¡, Nelly Kocarjan, Sarajs Kocarjan, Marketa HolatovÃ¡, Iva KinclovÃ¡, Robert Sterba, Filip Goc
Director: Jan Hrebejk
Studio: Sony Pictures
Product Type: DVD

Amazon.com

A daring comedy of ethics, Divided We Fall takes place during World War II in a small, Nazi-occupied town in Czechoslovakia. Josef and Maria, a childless couple, have withdrawn further and further from reality even as the war circles closer to their eerily quiet town. Josef's decision to sleep through a war he doesn't want to acknowledge is soon tested when the Jewish son of his former employer arrives in the middle of the night seeking refuge. David, the sole survivor from his family, escaped from a concentration camp in Poland and managed to return to the only place he knows in search of help. As they harbor David in their pantry over the next three years, Josef and Maria discover the depth of their resolve, forced to play the role of seeming collaborators in order to save themselves and David. Reminiscent more of Yugoslav filmmaker Emir Kustirica's devastating brand of black humor (Underground, Time of the Gypsies) than the saccharine Life Is Beautiful, to which it has been repeatedly compared, Divided We Fall achieves quite a lot, capturing the pervasive suspicion and betrayal of World War II through the unexpected guise of situation comedy. --Fionn Meade

Customer Reviews:

Rebirth and Resurrection.......2007-02-26

I have never seen a Czech film I didn't like. This one is top drawer. A childless couple hide a Jew during WW II and the compelling consequences. The ending is poetically just and symbolic. A must-see.

Turning your back on a people, be they Jews, Czechs (as Britain & France did), or any people, only delays evil turning on you........2006-09-05

"Throughout time, whenever tyrants arose and preached a mixture of world domination and complete intolerance for most other human beings, their first targets were often a small group of people noted for giving the world monotheism, the bible and a set of basic laws that have been followed for thousands of years." "[T]yrannical regimes always seem to have one common link---their deep hatred for Jews." The words are from a Warren Kozak opinion piece (which appeared in the New York Sun August 21, 2006). It's hardly a new idea, of course, yet most of the world still seems disinclined to acknowledge it. Blatant anti-Semitism is thus not just something for Jews to worry about. All folks who champion freedom thus, in effect, ought see themselves as part Jewish themselves: either you stand with the persecuted or you are just putting off the day when you might just as likely be faced with similar persecution. That's the central point of "Divided We Fall"---"the true and bittersweet story of a Czechoslovakian couple whose village has been taken over by Nazis during World War II." When a Jewish friend escapes from German confinement and makes his way back to their common neighborhood, the couple has a choice to make. "I lived here all my life," says the man on the run in the film, "so I thought maybe someone here might help me." But what makes this film unique is the notion that non-Jews really need to wed Jews (metaphorically) to stand up against anti-Semitism; for, without a union of some sorts, they are looking for trouble to come their way eventually. How the film presents this point is most unusual, but I won't get into specifics here, not wishing to give away crucial plot details. Suffice it say that the film exaggerates the above to make its point very clearly and does so with much style and accomplishment. That it's a Czech-made story only reinforces the idea that if you sacrifice a people (as Britain & France did) it's only going to temporarily put off the day of your own reckoning with the evil at hand. Nominated for an Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film of 2000 this picture is well worth watching. (06Aug) Cheers!

Heart felt.......2006-03-17

I initally rented the film online. Fell in love with the complex human interactions to survive during WW2, and to still do what is right. The ending has a twist to it that I did not expect. I liked this one so much that I purchased my own copy. Do not let the fear of English subtitals get in your way of a great movie.

United We Stand.......2006-03-09

This film is one of the best of all time, and certainly one of the best kept secrets among film buffs. It deals with a childless Czech family during the German occupation of World War II who at great personal risk hide the son of their former Jewish employer. What develops is a story that mirrors the Gospel account of the conception and birth of Jesus, but is presented as entirely plausible, despite the delightful slapstick. Not even the collaborators and turncoats are portrayed without compassion, though their foibles (as well as those of our heroes) are gently mocked in a truly universal and life affirming way. This is magical realism with an eastern European flavor.

Together We Stand.......2005-09-08

There has been a spate of fin de siecle films that have sought to undermine the general gloom and doom spectre of the Nazi regime. To take any other than the orthodox view is courageous and especially edifying as the films emanate from the occupied locales of suffering. 'Underground's' carnival flavour was festive at times, though I found the misogyny disturbing even accepting the plausibility of the plot. 'Life Is Beautiful', was really a supreme one-liner. But Jan Hrebjk's,'Divided We Fall' I'd nominate as the best of the bunch, for its farcical ferocity. The Czech town is occupied by Nazi invaders and its power structures, class and race, are inverted. The script is tight, tingling with one-liners, and given embodiment by a brilliant ensemble of lead characters. The reluctant hero, Joseph (the droll Bolek Poliuka)who'd rather have slept the duration of the war in hope that life would return to normal, is thrust to defend his Jewish neighbour. His valour, therefore, is dragged from him. Honour, allegiance, morality - all community values are deeply questioned, and definitively framed by their former friend, now a Nazi collaborator, who, in praise of Hitler has adopted the fuhrer's hairstyle down to the moustache. He's an ingratiating fellow who leeches after Joseph's wife. So many swift and sudden shifts of affiliation occur. The German Commandant, more than any Czech, is totally undone by the loss of three successive sons to the slaughter, and his wife to the asylum. Never has a title been more apt. This moves with the speed of Fawlty Towers and in the gangling Poliuka draws a touchingly real story brimming with comic insights and naive, good intent. I can't recall a film since,'Jesus of Montreal' that so exquisitely incorporates a Christian tale. Here, the 'miraculously' conceived infant, promotes a vision of resurrection in 'father', Joseph of the reunited family of the Commandant. Even during this epiphany,Hrebjk mischieviously has the infant peeing in his dad. The Germans sit at a table midst a pile of rubble. It's a climactic guesture of reconciliation and forgiveness.

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Divided We Fall
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ProductGroup: DVD
Binding: DVD

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Divided We Fall [Region 2]
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ProductGroup: DVD
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