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	Zelary
	Ondrej Trojan Anna Geislerová, György Cserhalmi, Jaroslava Adamová, Miroslav Donutil, Jaroslav Dusek, Iva Bittová, Ivan Trojan, Jan Hrusínský 2003		With most of its running time spent in a rural Czechoslovakian setting, "Zelary" offers a different-than-usual slant on the underground resistance to the Third Reich. It's a matter of historical record that members of the resistance who fought the Nazis during World War II risked everything in the name of freedom. But "Zelary," more romantic drama than war movie, doesn't fixate on surreptitious sabotage efforts or spy games. Rather, it introduces lovers Eliska and Richard, a nurse and a doctor in the Prague resistance cell, and reveals the circumstances that come between them when their covers are blown. Richard flees the country without Eliska; desperate and disconsolate, she must find a place to hide. Her best option is the distant mountain village of Zelary, where a former patient named Joza, an older man whose life she saved, agrees to pass her off as his new wife. As difficult as it is for an urban, educated woman to adapt to backwoods life with a simple, rough fellow such as Joza, Eliska has no recourse. She tries to cope with her unfamiliar surroundings and warm up to Joza, even as the forces of death and destruction close in. The countryside is magnificent, and director Ondrej Trojan shows it in all of its seasonal splendor. Be that as it may, the true beauty of "Zelary" is in the finely shaded performances by Anna Geislerová as Eliska and György Cserhalmi as Joza — an odd, oddly affecting couple.


	Wednesday, December 18, 2024





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