Customer Reviews

Divided We Fall

5 star:		(18)
4 star:		(6)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

I don't think that "Divided we fall" was such a good choice of translation of this movie's name. I personally come from Slovakia, the neighboring country to the Czech Republic, and we understand each other languages - and as my title says, the true meaning is "We must help each other". And that's what is the movie about - about people, their will to help each other, the strenght and weakness of the human character. The DVD is already out in Europe and what I can say is that the movie hasn't lost any of it's charm with the transfer to the DVD. However, as for Europe usual, the DVD had just little to no extras, because of all the different languages they have to pack on the DVD. We will see, if the US-version is better. Of course, you will be able to check it, just look a little bit higher on your screen, there you'll find it ... As I said, we must help each other. Didn't I help you now?

"Divided We Fall" is a great Czech Republic film from 2000, starring Bolek Polivka, Anna Siskova, and Csongor Kassai. It earned an Oscar nomination for Best Foreign Film. It desplicts a couple, Josef and Maria, from Czechoslavakia (now Czech Republic and Slavakia) who's devastated that they are unable to bear children. Josef begins losing all hope in life. Little do they know that their lives will become affected by the Holocaust. Suddenly, David, one of his ex-employee's family members and a lone survivor of a Polish massacre, enters their apartment in search of help. They risk their lives to hide him from the Nazis.

Through these intense chain of events, the hard-hitting impact is always present. Such powerful theme keeps audiences watching closely. This powerful film desplicts the Holocaust's hardships wonderfully, brutal and beyond heartbreaking. The emotion aspect builds as lives change forever, namely Josef's renewed life outlook. The unique camera effects in certain scenes dig deeper into the characers' surroundings. Such film quality gives the brilliant plot its viewing enjoyment up to the surprising conclusion. The performers add their own sense of emotional value to this, namely Polivka, Siskova, and Kassai. Kassai's captivating performance as David alone offers the unforgettable experience through his character's life threatening struggles.

"Divided We Fall" is yet another great Holocaust-based film that will continue pleasing its audiences. This will not be forgotten by any of them.

This is a terrific, warm, and beautiful film. It successfully examines a cross section of the Nazi occupation period in Eastern Europe. It lovingly narrates the WWII experience of a handful of seemingly ordinary people. It elaborates on the troubled evolution of the complex relationship between people and things Czech, German and Jewish. It is endearing and uplfiting. The film subtly confronts and employs some of the stereotyped character types of the war and occupation era. But does so only to undermine and overturn them eventually, ever so gently. "Divided We Fall" is immensely funny in a traditionally Czech bittersweet manner. The entire cast is wonderful. The quirky soundtrack complements the film very well. Photography makes more than excellent use of dreamy natural light, and the movie is a visual joy as well. A highly recommended cinematic pleasure overall!

Most films about the Nazis and the holocaust are unrelentingly depressing and hard to watch (although we need to). A few are ultimately uplifting. But this one is the only one I can think of that is both heartbreaking and funny at the same time. That's what puts it far above the rest.

The "moral" of the story -- that we must help each other survive through the hard times -- is never heavy handed, but it a natural extension of the situation the characters find themselves in. The ending is a treasure and one that doesn't feel contrived or unnatural.

The only fault I could find is that the first five minutes seem somewhat irrelevant, since I never could figure out for sure who the people were in the "pre war" clips. And it doesn't really matter. You can pick the film up when it reaches "the present" time of the action.

What a wonderful movie! We enjoyed the true signs of humanity throughout the movie. It is refreshing to see, how the struggle, just to survive during the cruel WWII is filmed in such a true but understanding way. And instead of revenge in the end, which would only follow a boring "good vs. evil" plot, people not only forgive each other, they FEEL, that they actually always will somehow belong together. In the end, David Wiener, who was 2 years hidden in a small closet space says about Mr. Prohaska, the Nazi-collaborator "He was a decent man", because he never denounced on his friends. Divided we fall.
A big congratulations to the director & the script - details and traces always find a fitting match later in the movie. And for once we have liked the various camera effects. A different kind of film material enhances in some scenes their surreal existence, supporting the distorted view of the protagonists in this human drama.

A highly recommended WWII drama, which is higher rated from us than "Holocaust" or "Schindler's list".

This film isn't going to be like the WWII/Shoah film the average person expects. Instead of focusing on a lot of atrocities and tragedies, almost all of the focus is all on the one couple, Josef and Maria, their Jewish friend David (whose father was Josef's old boss), and Josef and Maria's collaborator friend Horst. The first five minutes of the film give us very short vignettes from 1937, 1939, and 1941, and are pretty much useless, since we're never told who these people are and what their relationship is, apart from giving the viewer an idea of how life changed from the prewar era to after the Nazi occupation of Czechoslovakia. The real meat of the story begins in 1943, when Josef and Maria agree to take in their old friend David, who has escaped from Poland after being interned in Terezin, the sole survivor of his family (the people we saw very brief glimpses of in 1939 and 1941). He came back to the old neighborhood because it's what he knows, and figured, perhaps naïvely, that surely there would be someone who would help him. At great personal risk to themselves, his old friends agree to hide him in a closet in their apartment. This is no easy matter in wartime or under occupation, not least of all because one of Josef's best friends, Horst, is of German descent and therefore profitting greatly now that his people are the ones in power. In addition to Horst's frequent unannounced (and often unwanted) visits and attempts to bed Maria, they also must deal with Horst's boss, a German commandant whom Josef also later agrees to go to work for (prior to that he'd been sleeping through the war and not working). One never knows what is going to happen next, if they'll be turned in by Horst, who suspects or outright knows their secret, if their secret will be discovered by their Czech neighbors or the German occupiers whom Josef has to pretend to be buddy-buddy with to survive, or what anyone's fate might be after the liberation arrives. There are also many fine moments of comedy, none of it forced or overdone.

The film works because the characters are so nuanced and complex. Instead of relying on clichés and one-dimensional stereotypes, the characters are multi-faceted people, with both positive and negative attributes. Horst, the German sympathiser, may be a vulgar boor and a collaborator, but his actions demonstrate that he also possesses humanity, kindness, and loyalty. His boss Dr. Kepke might be a high-ranking Nazi, but he's also shown as a father who loves and cares about his sons, someone with normal human feelings behind the uniform. Even Josef and Maria aren't shown as complete saints just because they've agreed to hide David. They have normal human weaknesses and have the typical problems couples do, in their case particularly because they're still childless after many years of marriage in spite of Maria's fervent prayers to the Virgin Mary to grant them a child. Even the victorious liberators from the Soviet Army, the Czech Home Army, and the Czech partisans aren't depicted as completely understanding and benevolent people just because they're on the winning side. These are people who do what they had to survive, even if some of those things went against everything they had believed in before the war. And in spite of the potential for it given the storyline, the film is never emotionally manipulative or morally heavy-handed. The final scene of the film in particular is very moving. This is one foreign film and historical drama that deserves to be better-known.

Marvelous-I have never seen anything like this on the Holocaust. Human, warm, funny---wonderful presentation of people caught in this larger than life series of events.

MUSIME SI POMAHAT (We must help each other) is the original Czech title, which, I think, fit the film better. I love the film very much, but I must agree thle last scene was really a little bit too surrealistic. Anyone remember The Shop on the Main Street?

A movie about the horrors of the Nazi regime seen not only from the Jewish perspective, but also from the perspective of non-Jews in conquered Tschechoslovakei. Each character has their own personality, their own doubts and fears. In the end there is an unbreakable circle of salvation that gives the movie a poignant and unforgettable ending. A movie that's serious and humourous while at the same time cinematographically astounding.

WHAT: WWII German occupation of Czechoslovakia; middle aged childless couple attempt to conceal Jewish man in their apartment; to avoid suspicion they pretend to be Nazi sympathizers

WHY: Excellent performances from cast, but especially from husband Josef and former colleague Horst who is now his Nazi superior; tension and black comedy abound; wonderful irony, not too heavy handed; not as forced as "Life Is Beautiful"; ending is best part of a very good movie