ZELARY

Country: Czech Republic
Director: Ondrej Trojon
Lead Actors: Anna Gelslerova, Gyorgy, Cserhalml, Jaroslava Adamova, Mlroslav Donutll
Running time: 150 min.
English Subtitles
Rating: 14A (violence, sexually suggestive scenes nudity)

" A well-deserved 2003 Oscar nominee for best foreign-language film." - San Francisco Chronicle

A lovely Czech period piece by up-and-coming director Ondrej Trojan, ZELARY was nominated for Best Foreign Language Film at the 2004 Academy Awards@.

The story unfolds against the backdrop of the Second World War, when the Nazi occupation of Czechoslovakia meant that disruption of lives was the order of the day. Eliska (Anna Geislerova) was in medical school when the Germans arrived, so was unable to complete her studies -she remains, though, in her urban environment to work as a nurse at a local hospital. She also eagerly begins to take part in the resistance movement that has attracted the zeal of many of the hospital's doctors, including her surgeon boyfriend, Richard.

One day, Joza, a man from Zelary -a small rural mountain area- comes to the hospital in need of a blood transfusion. Eliska is the only one who shares Joza's blood type; a deep bond joins them after her blood saves his life. A long and extraordinary relationship develops between Eliska and Joza, despite their divergent backgrounds - Eliska lives and breathes the urban sophisticate lifestyle, while Joza is an uneducated man with a pure, unfettered soul. But when the Gestapo finds out about the resistance movement at Eliska's hospital, they all must flee, and Eliska goes into hiding by starting a new life with a brand new identity: she is now Hana, wife of mountain man Joza. No environment could be more alien to Eliska than Zelary, a sleepy village that modernity has never touched. War, however, places people in the most unusual of circumstances, and over time the two overcome their fears and suspicions to unite in their mutual will to survive. Along the way we are privy to a portrait of a village whose inhabitants are completely at one with the sometimes cruel Mother Nature, and to the many fateful events that change their lives forever.

"It's a convincing romantic drama, written, directed and acted with so much skill it's able to break loose from its conventional moorings and become more effective, more moving than we anticipated." - Los Angeles Times