Vojtech Jasný's All My Good Countrymen was released following a brief period of liberalization in Czechoslovakia in 1968 known as the "Prague Spring." Following the invasion of the country in that year by Soviet forces and five other Warsaw Pact signatories, the film was banned and Jasný was forced into exile.
Jasný won Best Director at the Cannes Film Festival in 1969. The narrative chronicles the machinations of Jasný's fictionalized small town compatriots who he knew growing up in the historical region of Moravia currently located in the eastern section of the Czech Republic.
The film begins in 1945 just after the defeat of Nazi Germany and presents glimpses of life in a small rural town chronologically up through 1958.
The expository scenes prior to the Communist takeover in 1948 are extremely lugubrious and the worst part of the film. These are vignettes that unfortunately show no economy of style; one such scene that goes on and on focuses on two kids who get a hold of some guns and fire live ammunition at a farmer who just avoids being killed.
The film picks up when the fate of each "good" countryman is shown as the years pass. The main character is proud farmer/peasant Frantisek (Radoslav Brzobohatý) who resists playing ball with the local Communists for quite a while.
The way the Communists work is of great interest confiscating the land belonging to private individuals and turning the businesses into "collectives." Of course, it's simply outright thievery where these petty tyrants are now running the show.
By 1949 some of townspeople who have cooperated are now marked men. Bertin (Pavel Pavlovský) the postman is unluckily gunned down after he switches places with church organist Ocenás (Vlastimil Brodský) initially tasked with completing an errand.
Ocenás, now facing death threats, leaves the village. Meanwhile Bertin's fiance Machacová (Drahomira Hofmanová)-dubbed The Merry Widow-later ends up with other men who meet an ignominious end. Her's is a woefully underdeveloped part just like the other female roles in the drama.
There are other tragic figures here that round out the proceedings-- Zasinek (Waldemar Matuska) who drinks himself to death, ridden with guilt over abandoning his Jewish wife during the war who was taken away and killed by the Nazis.
There is also Jorka (Vladimír Mensík), the town thief, who commits suicide by pouring acid over his foot after facing the prospect of more prison time and photographer Josef Plecmera (Ilja Prachar), once having obtained a coveted position as a power-wielding apparatchik, but ends up having a heart attack and going blind.
Most of the drama revolves around Frantisek who at one point leads a protest over the Communist's arrest of the town priest on bogus charges. Later Frantisek is imprisoned, escapes and almost dies after becoming ill during captivity.
A man of real principle, Frantisek refuses to sign a document declaring the amount of his harvest in contrast to the other farmers who capitulate to the Communists.
But even Frantisek finally agrees to become head of the collective and in effect becomes part of the "establishment."
Jasný also adds a surrealistic scene right before the climax with various villagers in a carnival procession masked with animal and monster heads. When the villagers arrive at a pub, they take off their masks and remark "soon all the people will be gone and all that will be left are the animals," suggesting that life is ephemeral, and people will eventually be forgotten after they die.
Frantisek's death is only alluded to in conversation. It's left to Ocenás who finally returns to the village after many years to provide the closing benediction: "We have made our beds and now we have to lie in them. But have we made them ourselves? What have we done, rather, what have we undone, all my fellow countrymen?"
All My Fellow Countrymen despite its lugubrious moments, presents a convincing bittersweet portrait of a small Czech village under Communist rule.
Jasný won Best Director at the Cannes Film Festival in 1969. The narrative chronicles the machinations of Jasný's fictionalized small town compatriots who he knew growing up in the historical region of Moravia currently located in the eastern section of the Czech Republic.
The film begins in 1945 just after the defeat of Nazi Germany and presents glimpses of life in a small rural town chronologically up through 1958.
The expository scenes prior to the Communist takeover in 1948 are extremely lugubrious and the worst part of the film. These are vignettes that unfortunately show no economy of style; one such scene that goes on and on focuses on two kids who get a hold of some guns and fire live ammunition at a farmer who just avoids being killed.
The film picks up when the fate of each "good" countryman is shown as the years pass. The main character is proud farmer/peasant Frantisek (Radoslav Brzobohatý) who resists playing ball with the local Communists for quite a while.
The way the Communists work is of great interest confiscating the land belonging to private individuals and turning the businesses into "collectives." Of course, it's simply outright thievery where these petty tyrants are now running the show.
By 1949 some of townspeople who have cooperated are now marked men. Bertin (Pavel Pavlovský) the postman is unluckily gunned down after he switches places with church organist Ocenás (Vlastimil Brodský) initially tasked with completing an errand.
Ocenás, now facing death threats, leaves the village. Meanwhile Bertin's fiance Machacová (Drahomira Hofmanová)-dubbed The Merry Widow-later ends up with other men who meet an ignominious end. Her's is a woefully underdeveloped part just like the other female roles in the drama.
There are other tragic figures here that round out the proceedings-- Zasinek (Waldemar Matuska) who drinks himself to death, ridden with guilt over abandoning his Jewish wife during the war who was taken away and killed by the Nazis.
There is also Jorka (Vladimír Mensík), the town thief, who commits suicide by pouring acid over his foot after facing the prospect of more prison time and photographer Josef Plecmera (Ilja Prachar), once having obtained a coveted position as a power-wielding apparatchik, but ends up having a heart attack and going blind.
Most of the drama revolves around Frantisek who at one point leads a protest over the Communist's arrest of the town priest on bogus charges. Later Frantisek is imprisoned, escapes and almost dies after becoming ill during captivity.
A man of real principle, Frantisek refuses to sign a document declaring the amount of his harvest in contrast to the other farmers who capitulate to the Communists.
But even Frantisek finally agrees to become head of the collective and in effect becomes part of the "establishment."
Jasný also adds a surrealistic scene right before the climax with various villagers in a carnival procession masked with animal and monster heads. When the villagers arrive at a pub, they take off their masks and remark "soon all the people will be gone and all that will be left are the animals," suggesting that life is ephemeral, and people will eventually be forgotten after they die.
Frantisek's death is only alluded to in conversation. It's left to Ocenás who finally returns to the village after many years to provide the closing benediction: "We have made our beds and now we have to lie in them. But have we made them ourselves? What have we done, rather, what have we undone, all my fellow countrymen?"
All My Fellow Countrymen despite its lugubrious moments, presents a convincing bittersweet portrait of a small Czech village under Communist rule.