The list of movies related to Czechoslovakia before and after the World War 2. Spoiler alert Following paragraphs describe plots of the movies, knowledge of which may deteriorate your viewer’s experience.

Uloupená hranice (“Robbery of borderline”, 1947)

Time

September 1938

Place

Kalek, Jirkov

Plot, topics

Czech police has to cope with German Freikorps smugglers (weapons) and “terrorists” (it culminates with open fire between the parties). One of the radicalized Germans is son of Czech mother and German father.

Characters

  • police officers
  • Hans (Honza), his sister, mother, father
  • post manager (German)
  • forrest guard/foreman (Czech)

Němá barikáda (Silent Barricade, 1949)

Time

May 1945

Place

Holešovice, Troja

Plot

German soldiers retreating from the Eastern front (with hopes of being captured by Americans and not Russians) want to use Prague as their temporary support fortress. Czech resistence however doesn’t allow them no easy pass, the movie focuses on Troja bridge where barricades were built and defended against German army.

Characters

  • Czech policeman
  • Polish prisoner freed from passing train
  • Czech leader and his son
  • veteran of Spanish civil war

Nástup (The Call up, 1952)

Time

May 1945–Autumn 1945

Place

Grünbach/Potočná

Plot

Group of three men (call them the communist, the young and the baddie) comes to a village in border region, they are members of Revolution Guards and they are armed. They occupy the townhall which is still driven by Germans, who are also majority in the village.

Their goal is to keep town’s (glass?) factory running, the baddie is appointed a manager of the factory and he keeps the German employees (rejecting a German antifascist communist). Meanwhile they replace post office director (German Elsa) with a patriotic Czech bureaucrat that came from Prague.

Elsa escapes and with help of Germans hides in the town and organizes underground resistance group that terrorizes incoming Czech settlers. Situation culminates and only with the help of Red Army is the resistance defeated and The Communist starts expulsion of all German population from the town.

The happy ending is framed by firing the factory manager and giving its control to the worker’s (council?).

Characters

  • main communist
    • A man with no flaws, has almost no personal life which he sacrifices to work for the Party and fighting Germans.
  • his young assistant
    • Absurdly amazed by the Red Army and communist ideology.
  • evil prey hunter
    • He greeds power and property, is not member of the Party.
  • Hans Palme
    • German antifascist and communist, concentration camp refugee
  • post officer Elsa Mager
    • Archetype of determined brave German woman (her determination would enough even for man).
  • Czech bureaucrat
    • A man in his fifties gave up his comfortable life in the city of Prague in order to use his skill to (re)build the Czech borderlands. Eventually, he fancies entering the Party.

Ves v pohraničí (Border Village, 1948)

Time

summer 1945

Place

Agricultural village near Czech-German border.

Plot

Czech family (mid age couple, their adult son and father of the husband) comes to settle a village emptied after expulsion of Germans. There is too much crops in the fields and too little workforce (many households are still empty). So they have to organize themselves and Honza is elected their “leader”. Meanwhile an unidentified dead man is found in the local sawmill, Czech police starts investigation and Honza’s son is the main suspect, which weakens Honza’s leader authority. Everything is resolved when saw yard manager is identified an SS-Mann through his tattoo and he is also found guilty of the murder (which is no surprise to audience since the murder was in the introductory scene). Finally, peace breaks out.

Interestingly, the only baddies are Germans, you needn’t to be a communist to be the good one (they are not important at all in the movie).

Characters

  • Honza
    • Enthusiastic builder who decided to leave his vegetable shop in Prague and grasp the opportunity.
  • Honza’s wife
    • She’s not very impressed with her husband’s decision, feels uprooted but serves well.
  • Honza’s father
    • Old man, not so important for him where he lives; he helps to discover a band of smugglers (associated with sawmill manager).
  • Honza’s son
    • Future of the land. Not sure if he had a girlfriend or was there just to be victimized.
  • two hikers/tramps
    • The start working on the fields but soon realize manual work is not for them and flee away.