Battle for Life
Bitva o zivot
dir. Miroslav Janek, Vit Janecek, Roman Vavra
Czechia, 2000 - 88
A feature-length documentary by a trio of kindred filmmakers which captures life at the turn of the millennium in the village of Bystrá in the Orlice Mountains of the Czech Republic. Each of the events presented in the film has been recorded through the subjectivity of a number of protagonists, and using records from community chronicles read by the villagers themselves, as well as contemporary amateur footage. Thus we become witnesses to everyday events and a variety of celebrations - a performance by a local group of practical jokers, a New Year?s Eve pub party, a fireman's funeral, a pyjama party, a parody of a Labour Day parade, and the reconstruction of a battle which took place during the Second World War for the neighbouring village of Janov. The filmmakers enlisted the help of certain expressive locals as actors who spontaneously enliven each of the more important village happenings. The history of Bystrá and the entire once-prosperous region (which today suffers from unemployment) is created from the participants' memories, which are either coloured by subjectivity or have taken on the form of local legends.
"The Battle for Life became an original chronicle of the 20th century, an extravagantly colourful mosaic of one magically rounded year. At the same time it is also an obsessively stunning report about people in general. The film includes personal stories, simple observations, merciless embarrassment a la Forman, humour, drama and unhidden emotions.
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