Divided We Fall
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List Price:
$24.96
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$21.99
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Manufacturer: Sony Pictures
Starring: Bolek Polívka, Anna Sisková, Csongor Kassai, Jaroslav Dusek, Martin Huba
Directed By: Jan Hrebejk
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Average Customer Rating:  
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Aspect Ratio: 1.85:1
Audience Rating: PG-13 (Parental Guidance Suggested)
Binding: DVD
EAN: 9780767874991
Format: Anamorphic
ISBN: 0767874994
Label: Sony Pictures
Manufacturer: Sony Pictures
Number Of Items: 1
Publisher: Sony Pictures
Region Code: 99
Release Date: 2001-11-27
Running Time: 122
Studio: Sony Pictures
Theatrical Release Date: 2000
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Editorial Reviews:
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A daring comedy of ethics, Divided We Fall takes place during World War II in a small, Nazi-occupied town in Czechoslovakia. Josef and Maria, a childless couple, have withdrawn further and further from reality even as the war circles closer to their eerily quiet town. Josef's decision to sleep through a war he doesn't want to acknowledge is soon tested when the Jewish son of his former employer arrives in the middle of the night seeking refuge. David, the sole survivor from his family, escaped from a concentration camp in Poland and managed to return to the only place he knows in search of help. As they harbor David in their pantry over the next three years, Josef and Maria discover the depth of their resolve, forced to play the role of seeming collaborators in order to save themselves and David. Reminiscent more of Yugoslav filmmaker Emir Kustirica's devastating brand of black humor (Underground, Time of the Gypsies) than the saccharine Life Is Beautiful, to which it has been repeatedly compared, Divided We Fall achieves quite a lot, capturing the pervasive suspicion and betrayal of World War II through the unexpected guise of situation comedy. --Fionn Meade
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Spotlight customer reviews:
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Customer Rating: 
Summary: A compelling nuanced story
Comment: 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.
Customer Rating:
Summary: Rebirth and Resurrection
Comment: I have never seen a Czech film I didn't like. This one is top drawer. A childless couple hide a Jew during WW II and the compelling consequences. The ending is poetically just and symbolic. A must-see.
Customer Rating:
Summary: Turning your back on a people, be they Jews, Czechs (as Britain & France did), or any people, only delays evil turning on you.
Comment: "Throughout time, whenever tyrants arose and preached a mixture of world domination and complete intolerance for most other human beings, their first targets were often a small group of people noted for giving the world monotheism, the bible and a set of basic laws that have been followed for thousands of years." "[T]yrannical regimes always seem to have one common link---their deep hatred for Jews." The words are from a Warren Kozak opinion piece (which appeared in the New York Sun August 21, 2006). It's hardly a new idea, of course, yet most of the world still seems disinclined to acknowledge it. Blatant anti-Semitism is thus not just something for Jews to worry about. All folks who champion freedom thus, in effect, ought see themselves as part Jewish themselves: either you stand with the persecuted or you are just putting off the day when you might just as likely be faced with similar persecution. That's the central point of "Divided We Fall"---"the true and bittersweet story of a Czechoslovakian couple whose village has been taken over by Nazis during World War II." When a Jewish friend escapes from German confinement and makes his way back to their common neighborhood, the couple has a choice to make. "I lived here all my life," says the man on the run in the film, "so I thought maybe someone here might help me." But what makes this film unique is the notion that non-Jews really need to wed Jews (metaphorically) to stand up against anti-Semitism; for, without a union of some sorts, they are looking for trouble to come their way eventually. How the film presents this point is most unusual, but I won't get into specifics here, not wishing to give away crucial plot details. Suffice it say that the film exaggerates the above to make its point very clearly and does so with much style and accomplishment. That it's a Czech-made story only reinforces the idea that if you sacrifice a people (as Britain & France did) it's only going to temporarily put off the day of your own reckoning with the evil at hand. Nominated for an Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film of 2000 this picture is well worth watching. (06Aug) Cheers!
Customer Rating:
Summary: Heart felt
Comment: I initally rented the film online. Fell in love with the complex human interactions to survive during WW2, and to still do what is right. The ending has a twist to it that I did not expect. I liked this one so much that I purchased my own copy. Do not let the fear of English subtitals get in your way of a great movie.
Customer Rating:
Summary: United We Stand
Comment: This film is one of the best of all time, and certainly one of the best kept secrets among film buffs. It deals with a childless Czech family during the German occupation of World War II who at great personal risk hide the son of their former Jewish employer. What develops is a story that mirrors the Gospel account of the conception and birth of Jesus, but is presented as entirely plausible, despite the delightful slapstick. Not even the collaborators and turncoats are portrayed without compassion, though their foibles (as well as those of our heroes) are gently mocked in a truly universal and life affirming way. This is magical realism with an eastern European flavor.
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