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Dark Blue World
review by Carrie Gorringe, 21 September
2001 26th
Toronto International Film Festival
Somewhere in
the middle of director Jan Sverák's film, Dark Blue World (Tmavomodrý
svet) in the middle of a labor camp in post-World War Two
Czechoslovakia, a former SS doctor who is now working for the
Communists attending to sick inmates, states cynically (but
truthfully) that there's not much difference between the two
ideologies. This was not supposed to be the way things should have
turned out; these inmates were former war heroes, trained pilots who
fled from Czechoslovakia one step ahead of the Nazi invasion and
fought as Czech patriots as part of the Royal Air Force. After the
war, they were thrown into camps by the Communist government, which
was afraid of the possibility that their prestige might persuade
others to rebel against authority.
World
's storyline alternates between that bleak camp existence and the
personal dramas that run through a particular Czech squadron as they
fight the war. While training in Britain, ex-Czech squadron leader
Franta Slama (Ondrej Vetchy) and his protegé, Karel Vojtisek
(Krystof Hadek), both fall in love with a widow named Susan (Tara
Fitzgerald). Predictably enough, this love triangle threatens the
group's solidarity and, by extension, their ability to survive, both
as a group and individually. Nevertheless, the film's concentration
of resources upon historically accurate depictions (the choreography
of the dogfights is impeccable, as is, more grimly, the recreation
of the miserable conditions in the labor camp), and the relatively
restrained passion in the actors' performances, always keep the film
compelling to watch. The film occasionally threatens to drift into
complete soap-opera kitsch, but watching a film balance on the edge
of credibility, and then succeed most of the time, makes things all
the more intriguing. The postscript informs us that these freedom
fighters were not given official recognition until 1991, perhaps the
most bittersweet aspect of all. Sverák (responsible for the 1996
Oscar-winning foreign film, Koyla) and his longtime
screenwriter, his father Zdenek, demonstrate yet again that they are
able to maintain a balance on that fine line between the uplifting
and the lachrymose. The film is a tribute to an era in which it
seemed as if everything of value was threatened, an issue which, in
the wake of the recent terrorist attacks, has been made all too
painfully clear.
Click on the titles below to read the reviews.
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Directed by:
Jan Sverák
Starring:
Ondrej Vetchý
Krystof Hádek
Tara Fitzgerald
Charles Dance
Oldrich Kaiser
Linda Rybová
David Novotny
Lukás Kantor
Hans-Jörg Assmann
Radim Fiala
Miroslav Táborský
Thure Riefenstein
Anna Massey
Written
by:
Zdenek Sverák
Rated:
R - Restricted.
Under 17 requires
acompanying parent
or adult guardian.
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