Customer Reviews

Zelary

5 star:		(25)
4 star:		(10)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

This is a film that I would heartly recommend to anyone. It's a perfect film for a Saturday night viewing with friends, at whoever's house has the biggest screen and the best speakers. The cinematography is sweeping and rich, and the score is moving. The story is epic, compelling and romantic (without getting sappy). Other films of this genre that come to mind are 'Cold Mountain' and 'Witness'.

Zelary is also chance to enjoy the work of prolific actresses/actors, most of whose work hardly makes it out of Eastern Europe. Ana Geislerova is currently one of the most popular actresses in the Czech Republic. Geislerova plays Eliska, a the young woman who must hide herself in a small village and to fit in must marry Joza, a sawmill worker whose life she saved with a blood transfusion. She received her 2nd Czech Lion, the Czech Oscar, for this perfomance. Her co-lead, György Cserhalmi (who looks a little like a cross between Harrison Ford and John Wayne), puts in a charismatic perfomance as Joza, the strong, taciturn, mid-50s sawmill worker. Cserhalmi has been one the leading actors in Hungary since the 1980s, performing in over 70 films. He was nominated for a Czech Lion (his 2nd, I think) for his performance in Zelary. As you will know after reading the DVD cover, Eliska and Joza fall in love eventually. The actors' performances are nuanced and *completely* believeable as their relationship changes from awkward and reserved to intimate.

Other reviews capably discuss the plot. Instead I'll review other production aspects and give some other background.

Review of the subtitles and translation

The English subtitles are well-done and accurate. But there were a couple scenes where the Czech meaning was noticeably lost because of differences in the structure of English versus Czech. In the beginning on the train, they are speaking using formal noun and verb endings, which are used for people who are not friends or family. Then Eliska says "We shouldn't be so formal" (meaning they are supposed to be pretending to not be strangers), but it's poorly translated as "We needn't be so formal". Joza then proceeds to use the formal structure again and Eliska, somewhat irritatingly, corrects him and makes him repeat after her with informal endings. If you don't understand what's being said, it's confusing why Eliska seems to be trying to teach him how to talk. Later right after they get off the train, Joza uses the formal structure (again) to tell her to be careful about the mud, and her sarcastic response (in Czech) is "Are you capable of being of speaking informally?" to which he responds, tersely, "I am" (meaning "I am capable of that"). However, in the film the translation of this dialogue is "Must you be so formal?" to which he responds, "No". This does not capture the sarcastic tone of Eliska's actual phrasing in Czech.

Soundtrack

The soundtrack is difficult to get outside the Czech Republic. You can find it at eshop.evropa2.cz, but the site is in Czech. You'll need to search for Zelary. Look for the box marked 'hledej' (means 'search') and type in zelary. This should bring up the soundtrack where you can listen to clips at least. The soundtrack is available on the PAL version of the film that was released in the Czech Republic. You'll find it here: cdmusic.cz (the site is in English, and is by the way a good source for Czech films, most subtitled). Warning the soundtrack seems to be at least partially taken from the movie and has some dialogue. The NTSC version of the DVD comes with English and French subtitles. The PAL version has Czech, English, and German subtitles.

Other stuff on the DVD

There is a short film on "The making of Zelary". This is good. Make sure to check this out. There is also a short film on "Going to the Oscars". This is ho-hum. The PAL version has the soundtrack and a photo-gallery of shots from the filming and from the film. The photogallery and soundtrack are NOT on the NTSC version.

Trivia

* There is a 28-year difference between the 2 leads. Geislerova was born in 1976 and Cserhalmi in 1948.
* The 2 leads did not talk at all off the set. Geislerova: "We knew each other only as characters in the film." There was a language barrier between the leads since Cserhalmi is Hungarian and Geislerova is Czech.
* Cserhalmi delivered many of his lines in Hungarian and Czech was dubbed over later. Geislerova wanted him to do this, since his Czech was breaking her concentration. Geislerova said in an interview: "I didn't understand a word he was saying."
* The doctor, Richard, was played by the director's brother.
* The actor, Miroslav Donutil, who played the priest is famous as a comic actor and comedian in the Czech Republic.
* Zene, the mother of Helenka in the film, is played by a famous Czech singer.
* The script is based on the autobiographical novella, 'Jozova Hanule' (Joe's Annie), by Květa Legátová. It has been translated into Croatian, German (under the title Der Mann aus Zelery) and Spanish (under the title La Transformacion). The German translation is available on amazon.co.uk and amazon.de.

Recently, I've particularly enjoyed a couple of films that I'd characterize as "chick flicks". ZELARY is the most recent, following on SHALL WE DANCE. I should schedule an appointment with my Family Practice witchdoctor to have my hormone levels checked. I'll know I'm in dire straits if I become addicted to the Home and Garden TV channel.

It's Nazi-occupied Prague in 1943. Young Eliska (Anna Geislerová) is a nurse in one of the city's hospitals and lover to one of its staff surgeons. In her spare time, she's a courier for the local Resistance. When one of the network is captured by the Gestapo, it's decided to evacuate Eliska to the mountain hamlet of Zelary accompanied by one of its residents, Joza (György Cserhalmi), a much older man that Eliska recently nursed back to health after his injury in a sawmill accident. So that her sanctuary in the village seems natural, and in order that she be accepted by the other inhabitants, Eliska and Joza wed. For the city-bred and sophisticated Eliska, her marriage in this rustic place is hardly an act of love. While Jozy is a good and kind man, he's also a rural bumpkin, who lives in a dirt-floor cabin without electricity, running water, or an indoor loo; he doesn't even take regular baths.

As you would correctly infer from the title of this review, this alliance of necessity turns into a love affair. The charm of this beautifully photographed film is that the story unfolds without the saccharine sweetness of a fairy tale romance. Indeed, after two years in the mountains, by which time the area is, um, "liberated" by advancing Soviet troops, Eliska experiences both the sublime and sordid facets of human communal existence anywhere. An ending perhaps more tragic than the true romantic would prefer doesn't negate the fact that the story illustrates the old saw that "love is where you find it", and that in anyone's past there may be a time span and experiences that add to his/her character depths that are unplumbable to current friends and lovers.

All of the acting performances in ZELARY were excellent, and that of Cserhalmi as the simple, salt-of-the-earth Joza was especially engaging. ZELARY was a viewing pleasure that I didn't want to end. And if that doesn't indicate a five-star film, then I don't know what does.

The love story about two utterly different individuals speaks volumes about the human condition. Eliska is a well educated woman who under normal circumstances would have little to do with Joza, a mere sawmill worker who lives in a small house with a dirt floor and no indoor plumbing. The man does not own a single book nor reading material of any kind. It is doubtful if he can even read at the level expected of a grade school graduate. Alas, this is wartime and the Nazis are searching for Eliska because of her involvement in the resistance. Hiding in the Czech boondocks and marrying the socially inferior Joza is her only viable alternative. She eventually learns to love him and make the best of a less than ideal situation. The term culture shock most appropriately describes Eliska's challenge to be accepted by those who perceive her to both be an outsider and a risk to their own safety. Nazi soldiers, as expected, don't hesitate to kill those who hide enemies of the Third Reich. Will Eliska be betrayed? Can her relationship with the villagers ever become warm and intense? We observe the process unfold over a period of a few years. Anyone who enjoys romantic stories must see Zelary. It may very well be ranked among your favorites of all time. Yes, it is that good of a movie. You should not be disappointed.

One wonders why it is so difficult to find a copy of Zelary's music score. It is among the best I've heard in years. Could it be due to the fact that few Czech films are imported to the United States? Whatever, I hope this might be rectified in the near future.

I think several previous reviewers have nailed what is so good about this film. I just wanted to add my voice to theirs. A quiet, deliberately paced story of a young female medical student involved in the WWII Prague resistance who must go into hiding from the Gestapo in a rural village. Her protector is a simple, older peasant man who had been a patient in her hospital. To insure her "cover" and to help protect the villagers from Nazi reprisals she must wed this man. The story of how this sophisticated young city woman adapts, adjusts to and what she learns from this very different life then unfolds.

Beautifully filmed, this story illuminates the dislocation the heroine feels, the danger surrounding both her and the villagers who exhibit all the normal human traits of honesty and dishonesty, treachery and loyalty, wisdom and foolishness. And finally, there is love and the human heart and the never-ending surprises to be found there.

Ah, the human heart and love, throughout history and a thousand stories already told, we still find it inexplicable and unpredictable. There will be another thousand stories yet to charm and bewilder us, if they're done well. This bittersweet tale is one more, and I found it worth my time.

Who has peeked inside Czech Republic since the Oscar winning Kolya? This weekend we rented the movie a recent Czech film, Zelary (rhymes with celery). The Czech Republic is the star; this film really shows her off: the mountains, wildflowers, colors of changing seasons, snow.

Zelary looks back, with nostalgia, on the transition between WW II Gestapo control of the country and the Russian takeover. A short period of time existed between the two regimes. I can only imagine the impetus to make this film was for it to be a cultural reminder to the people of Czech Republic. It asks the big questions: Who are we? Were did we come from? Where might we be going?

Short synopsis from metaphor point-of-view: Female sexuality holds center stage and works as a metaphor for the Czech Republic itself. Within the feminine element the film plays out bigger themes of birth and death, oppression and freedom, tenderness and brutality, fidelity and betrayal, and most provocatively, the urban and rural.

The film begins with an "urban" sex scene set in a modern apartment with streamline furniture, lots of books, records and record player, leather chairs, satin sheets. Eliska, an OR nurse, and Richard, a surgeon, are active in the resistance movement. Both are well educated, well-groomed, wealthy, have attractive bodies lovely undergarments, and all of their teeth. They make love to a jazz recording.

Cut to an hour later when Eliska has sex with a country man, Joza. To save her own life and to hide from the Nazi Gestapo, Eliska marries Joza but consummation takes weeks--or maybe months. Eliska must embrace the countryside and with it her man. Though Eliska softens up, Joza still smell bad to her. If he wants her, he has to take a bath in the new wooden tub and use soap.

The rural lovemaking happens in a bed, as in the first scene. The mountain coupling is very tender and long-awaited rather than impulsive and without a clear understanding of the relationship between the man and woman. Eliska and salt-of-the-earth Joza snuggle down in an overstuffed feather bed with a rough frame and flannel sheets. Their cabin has a dirt floor, no electricity, a few pots and pans, and a midget-sized door they have to stoop under to enter.

After she falls deeply in love with Joza, Eliska is raped in a sauna by a local drunk who threatens to expose her past political activities to the Gestapo and therefore jeopardize everyone in the village who might have helped her hide. There are more brutal rapes: a mountain woman is dragged off by a troop of German Gestapo who have just killed her family because they supported partisans. When the Russians arrive after the Germans are defeated, they go on a rape rampage.

In Zelary, men are the protectors of the culture, the country, the women. Men also threaten the safety and dignity of the women. They are surgeons, priests, farmers, soldiers, foreigners, and countrymen. At the film's beginning, when the resistance leaders send Eliska off with the saw mill man, they tell her: "Joza is a good man. He will die for you."

Die he does. When the Russians are on their rape and pillage rampage, Joza risks his life to gather the lost and stranded members of his village and shepherd them to a safe spot. By accident, he is shot by his own villager. His death frees the woman.

Off screen Eliska returns to the city, completes her medical training, and becomes a doctor.

The last moments of Zelary are profoundly touching. Four or five years later, together with Richard (the surgeon from the first sex scene), Eliska returns to what remains of the mountain village. The only person still living in the hills, it the old `witch doctor' who wears a babushka and traditional country clothes. She is the woman who birthed babies, gathered herbs, and prepared the dead. The old and new women embrace.

One can read the other reviews for the plot synopsis. I would only add that I found this movie to be as much about a certain place (the title) as about a love story. We see the lives and interconnectedness of these people through the eyes of the young woman who must out of necessity live with them.

This movie is well-worth the effort, and could be a very good introduction to foreign language films for those who shy away from them.

I guess I reserve 5 stars for all-time classics, but Zelary really is a great movie -- poignant and touching.

One more point: Although I'm not Catholic, I was gratified to see a priest portrayed as a devout yet human person and not a hypocritical or ineffectual jackass.

This movie is amazing. The most amazing part of it, it is inspired by a true stroy. The actors are superb and beautiful, and the theme heartbreaking. It comes to show one of the many faces World War II presented to people. It demonstrates how one event can alter a life in a dramatic way. I don't want to give away much of the plot on my review, because I saw the film in a theatre with absolutely no clue as to what it was about, and really could live in my own flesh every single feeling this beautiful woman was going through. Trust your instincts and watch it. This is the kind of film you will remember for the rest of your life!!!!

As one who spent almost a year teaching in the Czech Republic, I was pleasantly surprised by this beautiful film. It captures the Czech culture and it's colorful people so wonderfully, even in the midst of the turmoil of World War II. The relationships in the the film are sweet and charming and I actually spread my viewing of this film over 3 nights, not wanting it to come to an end. The story was so lovingly told and you really became attached to each of the people. At times,I found myself not even reading the English subtitles, because I was so engrossed in the gorgeous cinamatography and beautiful characters. I would highly recommend this film.

ZELARY is a brilliantly written (adapted from a novel by Kveta Legatura), grandly and sensitively directed (by Ondrej Trojan) epic from the Czech Republic that deserves the attention of a wide audience. It ranks in the realm of 'Doctor Zhivago', 'The English Patient', 'Charlotte Grey', and other big films about the struggles of love and living in the time of WW II.

Eliska (the delicately, radiantly beautiful Anna Geislerova) is a well-to-do medical student in 1940, in love with a doctor but also committed to the Czech Resistance Movement against the Nazis. The war closes in on her and her friends and she is forced to abruptly leave the life and status she has loved to avoid capture by the Gestapo. Reluctantly she agrees to leave with a humble sawmill worker Joza (Gyorgy Cserhalmi) from a remote town called Zelary. Joza is recuperating from war wounds and was tended by Eliska in the hospital. The plan is to have Eliska 'marry' Joza as cover and hide in Zelary until it is safe to return.

At first Eliska is appalled by the barebones existence she finds in Zelary and is repulsed by the idea of blending in, an idea which extends to marrying Joza. But gradually Eliska (now under the pseudonym Hana) grows to appreciate the simplicity of life in Zelary and even falls in love with Joza. She lives in the beautiful hills of Slovakia in a simple paradise, becoming an intricate member of this tiny town. The Nazis discover the hiding place but Joza and her townspeople successfully hide her. At last the war is ending and Russian soldiers come to free the fears of the townsfolk of Zelary. Situations occur that make the 'liberators' seem no different than the oppressors, and the film ends with Eliska/Hana's life forever changed.

The acting from the large cast is uniformly excellent, from the children to the old folk. The settings are brilliantly photographed and the lighting, costumes, music, and direction are of the highest order. While this is an unabashedly romantic film, it never forgets to pause for moments of universal truths about mankind's interactions and dreams and the survival of love against horrendous odds. This is a superb film, over two and a half hours in length, which never loses your urgent interest for a moment. Highly Recommended. In Czech, Russian, and German with subtitles. Grady Harp, February 2005

This film is a bit different but also about survival during the war years. One must do what they can to live. A young woman gets caught up in an underground movement. To escape she leaves her familiar life. Will she find her lover? Will she be found out by the Nazi? Her future lies with the common folk of a small village. Please take your time to see this lovely movie.