Zelary (2003): Dir: Ondrej Trojan / Cast: Anna Geisleruva, Gyorgy Cserhamhi, Jaroslava Adamova, Tomas Zatecka, Iva Bittova: Extraordinary film about danger and peace. Anna Geisleruva plays Eliska, a spy wanted by the Germans. She flees to Zelary accompanied by the quiet and resourceful Joza. Once there her identity is changed and she and Joza get married. Directed by Ondrej Trojan with splendid acting from Geisleruva who was a medical student before being whisked away. Now she must survive but finds shelter and love from Joza. He is played by Gyorgy Cserhalmi who was medicated by her at the hospital but now he must provide for her. Tomas Zatecka plays a boy who flees from school after scorn and abuse. His father is also abusive so he seeks refuge in a cave. He resides in the snowbound forest because his drunken father beats him but he discovers friendship and aid in the form of a young girl who provides comic relief. Jaroslava Adamova.plays a woman who teaches her about the wonders of herbal remedies before they bring this into the community. Iva Bittova plays a neighbor who lives alone with her daughter and helps Geisleruva become familiar with the lifestyles around her. While detailed with strong themes, it is still crafted with great care and great location work to boot. We are given the harsh realities of war and what it is like to live in hiding. Score: 10 / 10

This wonderful film almost lost me in the opening scene which is devoted to some explicitly athletic sex. Oh dear... just another European skin flick.... Well!!! It turned out to be one of the finest films I've ever seen. The acting is superb, even watching it with subtitles. Even more impressive is the artful photography. Every shot is carefully and creatively composed and staged. The colour, for day and night, summer and winter, sunny and grey, is like that from a master's palette. The superb camera work is enough in itself to make this a memorable movie. Then, near the beginning, there are wonderful scenes of an antique steam train. As a train buff, a war buff and a photography buff, I was close to nirvana. This is a film Hollywood producers should watch to learn how it should be done. I have but one criticism. At over two hours, it runs a little long.

There are dozens of redeeming qualities in this excellent Czech film, not the least is a feeling for a living village populated with actual people, certainly a result of dedicated ensemble acting; the film also imparts a sense of the natural beauty too often defiled by man's obsession with power and war (much in the manner of Terence Malick, but less oblique), and the cameos by both old and young and old actors create wonderful funny and touching moments.A woman is forced by circumstances to abandon city sophistication--a lover, smart clothes, new American music--and without much choice must marry a weathered old woodsman she earlier helped save from death...one can surely predict much of the outcome, but not the vivid scenes in the local school, or mill, or the hiding place in the swamp; this is a rich film with very good things to say about adaptation and learning--the ending is certainly problematic, and did not have to be all sweetness and light--but certainly it would have been surprising to delve into alternate solutions other than the director's final choice; otherwise, highly recommended!

Zelary is yet,another good find at the library for me. I hadn't heard of this film and I was sort of taken in by the unusual title. I watched it over 2 nights because I started the first 1/2 of the film kind of late. Otheriwse,I'd have sat straight through it. While it's true that there are elements in the film that have been used in other World War 2 dramas,that's a very small thing compared to the grandeur of the movie. It's (as mentioned in the DVD extra's) a love story. Two people get married to protect her from the Nazi's,who would have her executed for working against them. Sort of a marriage of convenience. What starts as something she's not looking forward too,blossoms into love between the two. Despite him being almost 30 years older. We see little of the German threat here but we know it exists,along with the threat of a young man wanting his way with her or he'll turn her in. The movie is more about how she truly becomes as one of the of the small village. The villagers are not 2 dimensional as someone mentioned,they are exactly as people were back then in the 1940s and farther back as well. The scenery is breathtaking and real which helps make it look as it did in that era as well. I feel all the actors did a fine job for a film that took 1 year and 2 months to complete. That long because they wanted authentic time and aging to happen,for a better sense of realism. It's nothing ground breaking but it was a very fine film to watch and become fully engrossed in. 9 stars,purely for being a good movie,with good drama and heart,as well as entertainment value. (END}