Divided We Fall

During the Nazi occupation of Czechoslovakia, lazy and depressed Josef Cizek and his childless wife Marie are trying to maintain some level of normalcy. However, according to their German-born friend Horst, whose unexpected and irksome visits keep Josef and Marie constantly on their toes, the Cizeks are incriminating themselves by not showing enough support for the Nazis. At the same time, their patriotic Czech neighbors criticize Josef and Marie for being too lax in their defiance. When David Wiener, the son of Josef's former employer, escapes from a concentration camp, Josef reluctantly agrees to hide his Jewish friend in their cellar. In order to quell suspicion, Josef joins Horst in seizing Jewish property for the Germans. But nosy neighbors and surprise inspections continually threaten to expose these unlikely heroes. In DIVIDED WE FALL, based on the novel of the same name by screenwriter Petr Jarchovsky, Hrebejk defies many of the conventions of the WWII genre by combining tragedy and comedy to explore the moral and emotional complexities of living under a totalitarian regime. (In Czech with subtitles) – E.J.B.