Divided We Fall

The Cizeks (Boleslav Polívka and Anna Sisková) are a childless Czech couple in a small town occupied by the Germans during the last years of World War II. They hide a “fugitive” Jew in their pantry and must make a desperate sacrifice to avoid detection. This provocative Holocaust drama is saturated with tension and streaked with dark comedy. Like Roberto Benigni’s Life Is Beautiful and Peter Kassovitz’s Jakob the Liar, it is a seriocomic tribute to the human spirit that illustrates how abnormal times invade and change the lives of rather normal people. Unlike these cinematic cousins, it dwells more on the complexities of personal relationships than the segregation of good and evil, and refuses to wallow in obvious sentiment as cowardice commingles with courage.