This is an interesting movie about the life of a nurse who belonged to the Czech resistance movement during World War II. I enjoyed the movie but I thought it was a little too long in parts. The movie was nominated for an Academy Award for best Foreign Language film in 2004.

The movie takes place in Czechoslovakia and begins in Prague where a nurse and doctor are working with other people in the resistance against the Nazi occupation during World War II. One resistance member who can implicate the two of them is caught and forces the doctor and nurse to split up and go there separate ways. The doctor heads west while the nurse, Eliska, played by Anna Geislerova, is headed to a small village with a man who the doctor helped save. She has to go with Joza, played by Gyorgy Cserhalmi, to the little village of Zealory where the Germans rarely go near and also close to where Communist Partisans fight the Germans. She is stuck in the village for the duration of the war, and she must marry Joza, and change her name to Hana, to keep the local authorities unaware of her presence. She does but is not happy about and she is also not happy about adjusting to peasant life when she comes from the rich city life she is used too. She eventually falls in love with Joza and accepts her situation.

During her time there she is forced to deal with many things. Two of the harder ones is a man who is attracted to her and tries to and eventually attacks he, starts to rape her but is stopped by Joza. She also tries to help the village trouble maker who is constantly being beaten by his drunken step-father. By 1944, the Germans are aware that somebody in the camp is a collaborator, but don't know who. So the publicly kill one of the people who live there. However before the Germans can comeback and finish what they started the partisans show up and provide security at first. However after the first night these partisans, it is discovered, are nothing more than drunken brutes that start to rape all of the women in the village. Some villagers escape to a small hiding place where they wait for help which does come in the form of the Russian Army. However, during this fight, Joza is shot and killed even though he saves many lives.

This movie was very interesting in that it shows that there is more than one enemy, and that the war creates a lawless ness and an instability that creates more problems than the enemy occupiers. There are instances of rape, assault, murder that the people have no one to turn to because the occupation forces don't care as long as they don't interrupt the German army. This movie also shows that the partisans who are fighting the enemy are not necessarily the good guys. Some times the people who are there to help you are bad if not worse than the ones they are protecting you from.

I thought the acting was very good; both leads did a great job in showing their characters emotions. I thought the story was nice and somewhat original including the ending, although the very end seemed a little unnecessary in trying to make the ending a little happier. The director, Ondrej Trojan, did an admirable job of blending the story with the scenery of the Czech Republic to make a beautiful motion picture, a very nice production when it is all said and done.

I highly recommend watching the movie, if nothing else just to see what village life was like during the war and all of the unseen dangers inherent in the war.

Brian - the Naked Gun