SYNOPSICS
Musíme si pomáhat (2000) is a German,Czech movie. Jan Hrebejk has directed this movie. Bolek Polívka,Csongor Kassai,Jaroslav Dusek,Anna Sisková are the starring of this movie. It was released in 2000. Musíme si pomáhat (2000) is considered one of the best Comedy,Drama,War movie in India and around the world.
In World War II Nazi occupied Czech Republic a childless couple, Josef and Marie Cizek, can only watch while the Jewish family of their employers, the Wieners, are first removed from their own home to a spare room in their house by the Nazis, then deported to Theresienstadt concentration camp. Years later, young David Wiener, the sole surviving member of that family has managed to escape and make it to the Cizeks. Although fully aware of the extreme danger of harboring a Jew in the Third Reich, the Cizek's can not permit themselves to leave David to certain death and agree to hide him. However, this decision leads to terrible danger of discovery by the Nazis and especially their friend and Nazi collaborator, Horst Prohazka, who is attracted to Marie. With desperate cleverness and luck, the Cizeks struggle to keep the secret, even when Horst begins to suspect. In doing so, they find themselves making unorthodox choices and learning about the true nature of the people around them.
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Musíme si pomáhat (2000) Reviews
Not for the simple minded
Without doubt, one of the best films you'll see in your lifetime. At the start, there is a car being driven in the countryside. The car stops, and three men get out to pee. Two of them play a little prank on the chauffer. In the next scene, the chauffer is in charge, and the family of the boy who played the prank (the bosses who happened to be Jewish) are being evicted of their big house. And this is just a very minor aspect of the film. There are selfish people, and there are selfless people in this film, and more often than not they are the same people. Of course, those who want things spelled out for them would like to know if Josef makes the decision that is central to the plot to save his skin, to save David's, or to make his wife (who wants to have children) happy. This is not a Hollywood film. I like American movies, most of the time. They are great for entertainment, but if I want something for my mind and my soul, something that can make me laugh, cry, and think, then this is the kind of movie I want.
Just incredible...
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.
Beautifully acted and finely nuanced portrayal of wartime loyalties
This movie is intelligent and thought provoking as it examines, without judgment, the human capacity for both good and evil in its portrayal of several citizens of a small town in Czechoslovakia during the Nazi occupation. It is rare that a movie be harrowing, funny, sweet, and heart wrenching without being contrived. What distinguishes this movie about wartime loyalties and collaboration with the enemy from well worn cliches is its finely nuanced portrayal of each character. Not every collaborator is deserving of punishment and not every so called resistance fighter is a hero. It is an emotionally rewarding movie and it shows that human behavior cannot be reduced to a Manichean struggle.
Witty, clever, heartrending, excellent
As the son of a Holocaust survivor, I am never sure how I will handle films depicting the events which claimed the lives of so many of my family. "Musíme si pomáhat" had its Perth première at the Festival Film season held at a wonderful open-air auditorium at the University, a place which has for me always represented a celebration of life, and each visit on a balmy summer night is an expression of my great joy to have this beautiful sunny city as my home. My father, now nearly 84, loves coming here, expresses his joy at being alive, having come through unspeakable horrors, and sees each year he stays fit and healthy as a gesture of defiance to those who were so eager to snuff out his existence more than six decades ago. In watching Josef wheel the pram in that final sequence past the ruins of his war-devastated home town, I could see his great joy to be alive, to have come through the horror which ultimately had one of his own countryman put a pistol to his head and tense his finger on the trigger. All the sacrifices he made, having to put at incredible risk the lives of himself and his wife, withstand the grossness of the Nazi toady Horst (Würst), submit to associating with the loathsome German occupying forces, and ultimately insist on his wife having sex with David, have yielded their great reward. He has his son, biologically David's son, but in all reality his. He has his marriage, and they all have a future which they will now carve out of the ruins. It is an incredibly hopeful ending. Reading some of the other comments on imdb, I feel a few missed the point, especially the Californian guy who thought it was German language film (it's Czech, mate!) and those who were troubled by the camera shakes. I could clearly feel that these were expressions of Josef's moments of utter panic, when time for him seemed to distort into flicker-frame slow-motion and he was clearly struggling hard just to retain control of speech and movement. At one point he says that he had shat himself. I think I'd have done the same, and my mental camera would certainly have shaken. Ten out of ten. If you haven't yet seen it, do!
One of the best movies in years!
This is the best treatment of the Holocaust that I have ever seen. An amazingly believable story about neighbors torn by the shroud of invasion. Set in Czechoslovakia during W.W.II, this is a glorious movie with passion, drama, action, suspense, betrayal, kindness, humor, man's inhumanity to man, survival, and the undeniable truth that you are only what you make of yourself. You surround yourself with people that you trust and hope for the best. The acting was superb! The directing excellent. I didn't want to get out of my seat at the conclusion. Be prepared to laugh and to cry and to leave the theater thoroughly refreshed, which is a rarity lately.