Divided We Fall (2000)

Save your money for something good and enjoyable

This is a tender, generous movie that likes its characters and presents them as real people, full of flaws and strengths.

The film makes a home in your brain and the only cure is to see it again.

Great story, amazing characters, superb action, enthralling cinematography. Yes, this is something I am glad I spent money on.

"Musíme si pomáhat" or "Divided We Fall" is a Czech 2-hour film from 2000. Because of its Oscar nomination it is the most known work by writer and director Jan Hrebejk and also one of the most known Czech films from the last two decades. Most of the language is Czech, but there are also German parts in here. From the cast, I will only mention lead actor Bolek Polívka, because he was pretty tremendous, but the supporting players were all good too and deserving of the awards attention they received. This is a film about the prosecution of Jews by the Nazis between the years 1933 and 1945, this time in the Czech Republic. A family has to witness how a Jewish family gets arrested and taken out of her home. Some time later, we find out that only one of them had survived and asks the family that watched back then for help. So, despite risking their own lives, they agree to take him in and hide him from the Nazi officers. A major problem here is that the family has a friend and neighbor who is very loyal to the Nazi party and quickly suspects that something's fishy there with the strange recent behavior from the family. This is one of the major conflicts of this film.I must say this movie was quite a challenge. There are many films out there about the prosecution of Jews, about World War II and about Nazi Germany, so it is always difficult to make something new and refreshing about the subject, but Hrebejk certainly succeeded here. The best about this movie is that it is a fairly simple story and there are not too many characters involved really, actually just 4 for the most part. So it had great focus and it is also very challenging to make a film on this subject and still manage to make people laugh or at least smile on some occasions. There were definitely some entertaining moments in here from a fun perspective and the most important thing is that they felt authentic, not rushed in, but they just fit in with the story. And last but not least, the movie also managed to be emotional and touching on many occasions, also fairly sad sometimes (such as the scene where they had to make a baby to avoid danger), which adds another dimension to it. Character development is okay as well. Most of the people stay exactly the character who they are early on, but there is one major exception and actually those who don't change aren't bad either as we find out more and more about them as the film continues. I genuinely enjoyed the watch here. This is one of my favorite films about the difficult years between 1933 and 1945. I highly recommend the watch to everybody with an interest in the subject. Glad to see it got the Oscar nomination. It would have made a great winner too.

Just saw this on BBC4 - extraordinary - it's the kind of achievement American (and British) screenwriters should practice for years to emulate. Robert McKee, see this film!The writing, directing and acting are all superb, and in the service of a supremely human story beautifully constructed around timeless epic themes of man's inhumanity to man, war, and all the other big stuff. To separate these from the movie itself, though, would be to do it a great disservice. The mix of laugh-out-loud humour, gripping thriller, and finally a well-earned and unsentimental tear-jerker of a last 15 minutes is the zenith of a movie-watching experience. "Divided We Fall" is very funny from the outset, but it doesn't take long for the filmmakers to skilfully tighten the knot with sudden character twists and brilliant writing early on. Once we're immersed in 1943 Czechoslovakia, we're not only rooting for the lead character Cizek, played immaculately by Bolek Polivka - a winning combination of contemporary earthy Brit character actor Philip Jackson and 20th century comedy genius Alistair Sim - we're feeling like we're there with him. He and the ensemble cast play every beat of the story just right (there's even one moment midway through where the audience are maybe allowed to get a bit too far ahead of Polivka's character, but it's remedied by the performances). The visual flourishes, especially the effects of switching between film speeds and using a DV tape look, all enhance the narrative without intruding into it, and thus heighten the tension at unexpected moments. The costume and make-up designs bring the human stories to warm life; and set against war-torn 1940s backdrops, the production design could hardly go wrong. A great treatment of a much depicted time and narrative that manages to make events feel fresh, real, scary, funny, dramatic, ultimately hugely moving...somehow many more people should get a chance, and be urged, to see this film.

If I were to say that this film is one of the best film of its genre, it would not be fair, because it is one of the best movies, period.A terrific story is masterfully directed and acted, w beautiful cinematography, and music. Everything done with perfection. Here is a film that is Perfect.

This film is so touching!This film does not try to depict war on a massive scale like' The Pianist', but on an individual level like 'Life Is Beautiful'. The storyline is simple, and yet effective. People do extreme things to survive, and this is portrayed effectively in this film. There is no history lesson here, no boring details, just plain portrayal of civilians' lives. Although 'Life Is Beautiful' remains THE most beautiful film ever made, and my all time favorite film, this film is truly touching and inspiring.